Online music downloads double

Music downloads in the U.K. doubled in the last week of 2007, a much larger increase than expected, the British Phonographic Industry revealed in a recent press release.

by Helen Leggatt

Just short of 3 million tracks were purchased online during the final week of 2007, according to data recently released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The figure, 2.94 million, is an increase of 100.2 percent from 2006’s 1.47 million for the same period.

The BPI, whose figures came from the The Official UK Charts' Company, also showed a 50 percent increase in music download sales on 2006, topping 77 million, whereas CD sales dropped during the same period.

emusic%20logo120x160.gif eMusic sells music online for independent labels and they also smashed retail expectations during the 2007 Christmas period. On Christmas Day alone they clocked up almost half a million downloads of music and audio-books.

"Recent years have seen a boost in download sales in the week after Christmas, but this was a larger increase than expected, and sales should continue to grow throughout 2008. The enormous choice of music and great value for money, combined with the ease and convenience of downloading, means legal digital music services are becoming increasingly popular with music fans," said BPI's Director of Communications, Matt Phillips.