Sales Top 13 Million As Legal Music Downloads Market Expands : 1:9:2005

New figures released today by UK record companies association the BPI shows that an increasing range of music fans are beginning to download legally, fuelling the boom in legal download sales.

As recently as December 2004, only 4% of download spend was accounted for by females, with only 6% of spend by under 25s. But today's figures suggest that more and more consumers are now starting to download legally.

Britain's digital music market grew massively in 2004, with 5.7 million tracks sold compared to virtually zero in 2003. And the market shows no sign of slowing down; weekly sales now regularly top the 500,000 mark - and 13 million downloads have already been sold this year.

BPI Chairman Peter Jamieson said: "For years the record industry has been working to help develop a workable alternative to illegal filesharing. Now it is here, more and more people are tuning into legal download sites for the choice, value and convenience they offer."

Download market begins to widen

Earlier this year, the BPI announced that in the final quarter of 2004 a massive 96% of download spend was by males, reflecting the male bias among the so-called early adopters of new technology.

But with the popularity of digital services growing, TNS figures from the first quarter of 2005 show that males' share of download spend had fallen to 73% as more females start to download legally.

And downloaders are getting younger. Though 45-54 year olds are still the biggest spenders on digital music services, accounting for 34% of overall spend, today's figures demonstrate that increasing numbers of young consumers are also starting to download legally.

While last year's figures show that the 12-24 age group accounted for only 6% of all digital sales, their share of download spend has now risen to 27%.

But the market is still in its infancy with digital music currently only accounting for around 3.6% of consumer spend, and a small percentage of downloaders (15%) accounting for 54% of all tracks downloaded.

BPI spokesman Matt Phillips said: "The legal downloads market is growing rapidly, but it is still in its infancy and so far tech-savvy early adopters have driven demand. These figures demonstrate that while the market is widening there still much potential for further growth. The entry of Britain's biggest music retailer to the digital market will surely attract a wider base of new customers which is great news for the industry and consumer alike."

New HMV service is good news for indies

The BPI has also welcomed HMV's work to license independent repertoire, with the retailer working with BPI to encourage indies to license ahead of today's launch.

BPI Director of Independents Jon Webster added: "Access to market is vital to the independent sector, and we are pleased that our campaign to help indies make the most of new opportunities in digital distribution has been successful.

"As part of this we have worked for many months to help our independent members to license to HMV's new service, and the arrival of Britain's biggest music retailer into the digital marketplace can only improve consumer choice."

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