Music Industry Looking Up A Bit

Go to any music industry conference or trade show and about all you'll hear is doom and gloom about the current state of the business. Of course, the pundits are correct in their assessment that things aren't like they once were - sales have declined about 54% since 2000. But in some areas, things are actually looking up according to the latest report by the IFPI (International Federation of Phonogram Producers), which represents the the music industry world-wide.

So what's on the rise?

1) Performance royalties on recordings were up 7.6 percent to $785 million in 2009.

2) Digital music sales have risen by 9.2 percent to $4.307 billion, which now account for 25.3 percent of all worldwide music sales.

3) The rate of decline on physical product (like the CD) has declined, slipping only 12.7 percent in 2009, which was down from the 15% drop in 2008.

4) 13 countries actually had gains in 2009, including Australia (up by 4.3%), Sweden (11.9%!!), the UK (1.9%), and South Korea (10.4%).

On a side note, the British Phonograph Industry's (BPI - the UK version of the RIAA) released their 2009 numbers as well, and while they're in the ballpark with the IFPI's figures, they are a bit different.

In the UK, digital sales are growing by a rate of 48%, the decline of the CD sales is 14%, and digital music revenues are 21% of the total sales.

The RIAA has not yet released the music sales figures for the United States, although that should be any time now.

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