The growth in digital music sales is slowing considerably, falling into the single digits for the first time since record companies began making significant amounts of money online in 2004, according to figures released Thursday.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said digital sales increased by 6 percent in 2010 — only half the growth rate registered in 2009 and far from the explosive expansion seen in earlier years. The IFPI values the market in legal digital music at $4.6 billion, but says the trade in unauthorized content remains far, far more important.
“As an industry we remain very challenged,” IFPI chief executive Frances Moore told journalists ahead of the report’s publication. “Something like 95 percent of downloads are still unlicensed.”
The IFPI is a dogged opponent of illegal file-swapping, which it claims is ravaging the world music business. Its annual reports have charted its campaign to crack down on pirates — as well as the growth of the industry’s digital offerings, which now account for nearly a third of the industry’s flagging revenues.
Results last year were mixed.
The IFPI counted some qualified successes: Britain followed the lead of countries such as France and South Korea by enacting a law that could eventually lead to persistent illegal file-sharers having their Internet access limited or suspended outright. China, one of the music industry’s biggest problem areas (music piracy rates there are estimated at virtually 100 percent) said it was working to tackle the issue.
There was some good news for the IFPI on the legal front as well. In October a U.S. District Court issued an injunction preventing Limewire — which the IFPI accuses of being the country’s biggest source of illegal music downloads — to stop supplying its software. The next month, Sweden’s Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of three men operating The…