2007-09-21

The Digital Music Market Today. A snapshot

The Music Information Center Austria (mica) is co-ordinating the project. DMET Digital Music Education Training, with the support of the Culture 2000 programme of the European Union. The main goal of DMET is to create a curriculum for digital music business affairs, providing artists and labels with the knowledge they need to take advantage of the new marketing and distribution possibilities of the Internet. Currently one of the main activities in DMET is the creation of a consolidated body of knowledge on the digital music market. The following article gives an example of these topics, mainly focusing on the present situation of the music industry and the problems they are struggling with.

Some days ago the Digital Music Report 07 was published, a manual offering information on the global development of the digital music market. It is being published by the IFPI (International Association of Phonographic Industry), an organisation operating world-wide, representing its members (Major Companies and Independent Labels) interests. The successes of 2006 were as follows: 798 million single track downloads passed the virtual cash-desk. The profits doubled to approximately $2 billion. All in all, a happy season for the music industry.

Further market growth is to be expected within the next years, especially the mobile music sector will be playing a leading role here. This is exactly what happens in Austria as well: the market grew by another 50 % due to increasing turnovers in the online sector. Around 6.2 million downloads have been registered in Austria, with again Mobile Music playing a very important role.

The article is part of the magazine Sounds in Europe, which can be downloaded at the website of the European Music Council: http://www.emc-imc.org

Download: http://www.emc-imc.org/archiv/sounds_2.pdf

European Music Council