Report: digital downloads foster music industry growth

2011 may be remembered as the year record sales stopped sagging and actually grew - a first for the music industry since 2004, said Nielsen.

A report from the researcher's SoundScan service this week suggests the surprising turnaround can be chalked up to digital music, which many agree hindered record sales in the first place. 155.5 million albums were sold in the first six months of the year, marking a minor 1 percent boost over sales during the same period in 2010. Single-track downloads, rounded up to 10 to count as an album (their rules, not ours), balloon that figure to 3.6 percent, or 221.5 million albums sold.

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Other statistics culled from online retailers support what most won't be too shocked to hear: digital music sales are booming in 2011. Single track and full album downloads grew 11 and 19 percent, respectively. Though the latter enjoyed the larger growth (to just over 50 million), more than 660 million tracks were bought - an interesting discrepancy that lends some credence to certain artists' fears about how people experience their work. Considering the myriad ways consumers now have access to tunes across so many whiz-bang devices, it's almost a safe bet to say it could only get better for the industry at large.

Last year, Apple's popular iTunes music service sold its 10 billionth song. You read that right: sold. Whether you love the company or not, it's undeniably leading the way in the digital music download space and helping the industry post these healthier numbers. It's unclear if the company's newly revealed iCloud will garner the same praise and widespread adoption as iTunes. The service launches this fall, so it won't be too much longer until we find out. Some industry members, however, remain leery about the very concept of cloud-based music. Similar doubts were expressed when digital music became a reality, of course.

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For now, music industry leaders seem satisfied.

Jim Donio, President of leading music trade group the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM), said in a press release that the report was "very welcome news" and "exciting" for an industry so plagued by piracy. Donio added that he was "understandable cautious" about what the findings spell for the future, though believes the closure of music sharing site LimeWire last year helped considerably. (via TechCrunch)

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