Digital dips in the US

Sales of digital music dipped in the USA in 2013, the first time since iTunes launched in 2003. Nielsen say that US digital single tracks dropped from 1.34 billion in 2012 to 1.26 billion last year. The drop is being blamed on the success of music streaming sites such as Spotify.

Digital pushes past physical in the UK

Digital revenue from sound recordings have surpassed physical product revenue for the first time in the UK  in the last quarter, with download, streaming and other digital services accounting for 55.5% of recorded music income. A continued decline in CD coupled with the continued growth of digital, including an almost doubling in subscription revenues from streaming platforms, led to the change. Overall digital made £86.5 million for the British record industry in the first quarter of 2012, with physical sales taking overall recorded music revenues to £155.8 million. In good news for the record industry, overall sales were slightly up on the same period last year - by 2.7% - with the BPI's Geoff Taylor saying  "the industry's prospects for growth look brighter than for several years" although adding "We will need to see this trend repeated for several quarters to say we have turned the corner - demand for physical CDs remains strong in the UK, especially in Q4. However, the creativity, investment and digital expertise of the British music industry point the way forward for growth in the UK economy". The top five dgital albums came from Lana Del Ray (Born to Die), Emeli Sande Our Version of Events), Ed Sheerhan (+), Adele (21) and Coldplay (Mylo Xyloto) and top selling digital singles were Goyte ft Kimbra (Somebody That I Used to Know), David Guetta ft Sia (Titanium), Jessie J (Domino), Flo Rida ft Sia (Wild Ones) and Emeli Sande (Next  to Me). 

Global record sales fall in 2011

The global record industry saw trade revenues drop by 3% in 2011 to $16.3 billion. The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry noted that the 3% drop represented a "significant slowing in the fall of the market". Physical sales worldwide slumped 8.7%, but an 8% boost in digital income helped limit the impact overall of the continued decline of the CD. Vinyl ow accounts for about 1% of global record sales. For the first time the IFPI also published figures for its members' sync revenues, which brought in $342 million globally in 2011, while the public performance royalties generated by sound recordings worldwide were also up, by 4.9% to $862 million.

UK digital sales still growing

The BPI has announced that more digital albums have already been sold this year than last year, with two months still left to go. According to Official Charts Company data released by the trade body, over 21.3 million digital albums have been sold so far this year, meaning 2010 sales levels have already been beaten. Digital albums now account for 26.2% of all album sales, up from 17.5% in 2010.