The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released its annual study of trends in digital music: IFPI Digital Music Report 2012. The press release has links to the full report and a key facts and figures summary. (We linked to the 2011 report here.)
This year's trends are broadly positive. IFPI reckons global digital music sales grew by 8% last year, to $5.2bn, compared with a 5% increase in 2010. This is the first year since IFPI began recording this data in 2004 that the rate has accelerated year-on-year. In the United States (and South Korea), digital revenues now exceed those from physical sales. The biggest digital music services such as iTunes and Spotify are also spreading rapidly, with operations in 58 countries in 2011, versus 23 in 2010.
Nevertheless, piracy continues to be an issue, and not just in music - the IFPI quotes an estimate that 60 per cent of e-book downloads in Germany are illegal.
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