James Delahunty
19 Apr 2005 19:37
Brits have bought more than 5.6 million music downloads so far in 2005, a figure that brings music downloading into direct competition with the sales of singles. The announcement follows the launch of the first official singles chart that combines sales of downloads and physical media. It almost doubled the number of singles on the official weekly tally which shows the growing importance of legal downloads to music sales.
At least 383,000 downloads were sold last week, just under the 393,000 physical units but the amount single-track downloads that are being counted as singles isn't clear. So far in 2005, 5,263,995 tracks were downloaded which is more than the entire of 2004. You have to remember though that iTunes was not available in the UK for five months in 2004. iTunes is believed to be responsible for up to 805 of legal download sales in the UK.
However it’s not all good for iTunes in the UK; independent labels feel like they are being under-represented by Apple whose iTunes service launched in the UK with no content from independent labels. However, sector insiders defend Apple by saying this is because the company can’t add music to iTunes any faster than it already is.
Source:
The Register