Global Digital Music Stats

The IFPI, an organization that represents around 1,400 record companies in 73 countries, has released its 2009 Digital Music Report. Here are some of the key numbers presented in their findings:

• Just over 1.4 billion legal singles were downloaded in 2008
• The top-selling digital single was Lil Wayne’s Lollipop with 9.1 million downloads
• Digital album sales grew by 36% in 2008
• Digital now accounts for 20% of all recorded music sales, up from 15% in 2007
• The US accounts for around 50% of the entire global digital music market value, with 1.1 billion single-track downloads in 2008 and 66 million digital album sales
• Approximately 40 billion songs were downloaded illegally in 2008 (approximately 95% of total music downloads)
• US broadband users spent an average of $12.50 on music in 2008, compared to $7.80 in the UK, and $0.60 in Spain

What do these numbers mean? I think the trends we’ve seen over the last year or two can lead us to some couple simple conclusions about selling music in this new music business:

• Music consumers are listening to more music than ever before, and
• Music consumers are opening up to getting all their music digitally

…and therefore…

• Legal music needs to be just as easy to download as illegal music.  (i.e. no software to install, no DRM, no sign-ups, and quick check-out)
• Legal music needs to be packaged in the same way that it is available through illegal means (i.e. a range of quality levels and encoding formats, and “boxed sets” or entire discographies offered at discounted rates)