A report from US-based market-research firm In-Stat says that digital sales will account for 40 per cent of all music purchases worldwide by 2012.
![]() Click to enlarge |
In-Stat says a couple of factors are contributing to this growth including the expansion of broadband, demand for single track downloads and expanding music catalogs. Full track downloads to mobile phones will also be a factor in the next few years, the report said.
However there are still many obstacles to any potential growth in the online music business, says the research firm.
“Digital piracy continues to represent the primary challenge to online music service providers,” said Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst. “Other obstacles still include the lack of interoperability between services and devices due to differing digital rights management technologies, and weak consumer demand for subscription-based services. Another potential market inhibitor is the fact that content owners, mobile service providers and handset
manufacturers are increasing the amount of marketing and promotion for mobile music.”
Regardless, music retailers shouldn’t start cying poor any time soon as digital music sales for online digital music reached $US3.05 billion in 2007, up 48 per cent from 2006.

