Digital vs Physical Album Sales
This stat continues to baffle me – 65% of music sales are still a physical cd format! At least according to the sales numbers for the first half of 2009. Digital download sales account for the other 35%.
The prediction is that digital sales will overtake physical sales by 2010 as cd sales fall 15-20% and digital sales increase 15-20%.
Other interesting facts to come out of this report by the NPD group are that:
- 25% of overall music sales are done on iTunes
- 69% of digital music sales are done on iTunes
- 14% of overall music sales are done at Wal*Mart
- 20% of physical music sales are done at Wal*Mart
I have often blogged about the fact that music sales are happening at stores (online & offline) that have many different titles. I am always wary when a new site comes up online to sell one particular style or label of music. Consumers want to be able to purchase Mozart and Jay-Z in the same place.
Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com
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It's not especially surprising to me. I don't like buying my music in a downloaded format. For one, the quality is usually way lower than what I like for my music (I use LAME -V2 settings for music tracks).
What I can't understand is why anyone would buy a track that's 128 kbps or even 256 kbps when he/she can get a much better optimized track for about the same price? This is even more true when we're talking about DRM-protected tracks, which are irritating.
I usually buy my CDs online as cheaply as possible, which usually amounts to buying them used. The exception is when I buy directly from an artist (at a show, etc.) that I really like and want to support.