Digital music sales steady

Digital music sales in the United States, the world's biggest market, have over the past five months, according to new Nielsen SoundScan data. MacNewsWorld reports that while digital sales almost tripled to 6.6 million downloads a week in the year through May, numbers indicate that sales were only at 6.7 million in the week ending October 23th. The report indicates that the per-iPod average dropped from 25 songs to 15 songs and that global CD sales fell 6.7 percent to $12.4 billion in the first half of 2005. Though the drop in per-iPod average may just be a function of the sheer numbers and acceleration of iPod sales, some analysts don't see digital music changing buying habits: "The download numbers suggest that the iPod's iconic success isn't translating into new music sales the way the evolution from vinyl albums to cassettes and then CDs did. For many users, the portable devices are just another way of stocking and listening to music, not an incentive to buy new music."

by MacNN Staff