For the first time in seven years the music retail business has seen an increase in sales. Although a modest 3%, the news is good considering that growth was in negative double digits in recent years.
The Nielson report released yesterday showed digital album sales coming in at 103 million, up 19 percent, and that digital tracks climbed to 1.3 billion, an 8.5 percent increase from last year.
There are a variety of factors contributing to the turnaround, namely the popularity of Adeles "21" album which sold 6 million copies as well as her track " Rolling In The Deep" which sold 5.8 million copies. Other contributors to the increase are the anti piracy crackdown (e.g the removal of file sharing software Limewire in 2010), the plethora of mobile devices that play music, the fact that some consumers actually want to puchase albums and CD's and are loyal to physical product and also the fact that through the internet music is easier to discover, sample and purchase through subscription services like Spotify,Rhapsody, and MOG.
Who knows where it will go from here? For the tIme being its good news for the retail music industry.
