Global recorded music sales for 2009 fall 7.2% to US$17 billion

May 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Global recorded music sales for 2009 show a mixed picture. Trade revenues to record companies fell by 7.2% to US$17 billion, with the world’s two biggest markets, the US and Japan, making up 80% of the decline. The worldwide fall in revenues outside the US and Japan in 2009 was 3.2%. Physical sales fell by 12.7% globally.

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There are key areas of market growth, however. Digital music sales rose by 9.2% to US$4.3 billion, more than ten times the digital market value in 2004. Digital channels now account for 25.3% of all trade revenues to record companies. In the US, digital sales account for nearly half – 43% – of the recorded music market. More than 30 countries saw double-digit growth rates in digital sales, and 17 markets, including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Singapore, Sweden and UK, saw digital sales grow by more than 40%.

There was a return to growth in 13 markets, including Australia, Mexico, South Korea, Sweden and the UK. Improving legal environments in the last two to three years in South Korea and Sweden – combined with the launch of popular legitimate services – helped both countries to market growth rates of 10% in 2009.

Countries with some of the world’s weakest legal defences against piracy show the sharpest market falls, Spain where illegal file-sharing is more than double the average rate in Europe saw its music revenues fall 14.3%. Canada, practically the only developed country that has not implemented international copyright treaties, agreed over a decade ago, is believed to be a major source of the world’s piracy problem, with sales declining 7.4% in 2009.

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