CD albums still beat downloads

Though 90 per cent of all music singles sold are downloaded, Brits are much more likely to buy albums as CDs rather than as digital files.

According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), 96.5 per cent of albums sold in the UK are a physical product rather than downloads from services such as iTunes.

Fifty-eight million CD albums were sold in the UK in the first half of 2007, an increase of 32 per cent on the first half of 1997, when 43.7 million CD albums were sold.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: "CDs remain very attractive to consumers because of the flexibility and outstanding value for money they offer and for this reason they still represent the overwhelming majority of sales. Album units have dipped year on year, but we are still selling 32 per cent more CDs than 10 years ago."

However, the fact that only 3.5 per cent of all albums bought are sold as digital files could mean trouble for digital music stores, according to some voices in the industry.

Analyst Mark Mulligan of Jupiter Research said: "These numbers highlight one of the paradoxes that digital poses for the music industry: digital is clearly where the momentum is. However, the iTunes-dominated distribution model has created a business model which is simply not in the interests of the record labels."

Mulligan thinks that more needs to be done to encourage people to buy entire albums online rather than just picking out single tracks for downloading. Offering music without restrictive copy-protection mechanisms could be the answer, he said.

"A cynic could extend the argument that much of what is on albums isn’t worth buying. Digital music sales need to provide heavy consumer incentives to buy multiple tracks and albums - the EMI DRM-free album pricing is a valuable step in the right direction," said Mulligan.

www.bpi.co.uk
www.jupiterresearch.com

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