Digital music grew in 2005 despite P2P usage

Filed in archive Analysis on January 20, 2006

IFPI, the international music industry association issued its report for the state of digital music in 2005.

Key findings:
* There are 2 million songs online, double from last year
* Mobile music sales are over $400 million
* Total digital music sales were $1.1 billion, up from $380 million in 2004
* Total digital downloads were 420 million singles, 20 times the amount two years ago. It is unkonwn why they didn't compare it to the previous year.
* Digital music is 6% of record company sales.
* There are 335 legal download sites, up from 50 two years ago.
* Apple iTunes is now in 21 countries

On the P2P front:
* iMesh, the first authorized file sharing service, was launched
* Jupiter research says that 6% of internet users regularly download legally in the UK and Germany, compared to 5% who share files.
* Legal downloaders typically are first-time downloaders and are not converted file sharers. Only one in five legal music downloaders is also a file-swapper
* 50% of users who say they stop file sharing do so to avoid legal action. However that has had little effect as overall P2P use increases.