Australia has registered an increase in music sales for the first half of 2009 compared to the same period last year.
The industry has bottomed out with thanks to digital sales having acceleration in growth with unit sales increasing by 30% and value by 43.41%.In that same period, physical sales decreased by 8% in units and 7% in sales.
Digital singles and digital albums contained the biggest growth. Digital tracks were up 36.46% and digital albums up 56.81%. CD singles decreased by 44.18% while CD albums were down 4.48%
There were some interesting figures for vinyl releases. Sales increased from 9,680 units in the first half of 2008 to 38,364 units for 2090.
Ringtones decreased substantially though, down 14.83% from 2,316,864 units to 1,992,231 units.
The Australian record industry was worth $178,604,409 for the first six months of 2009. That was 0.4% increase over the same time last year.
“It is extremely heartening to see the market leveling out like this when, given the economic climate, people mat have expected to see a general decline,” ARIA Chairman and Warner CEO Ed St. John said in a statement.
St. John says digital is the way of the future. “It’s the most positive sign we’ve witnessed in a long time that the digital format is firmly established and well on it’s way to replacing any value lost via the physical format decline. What we are seeing is the first tentative evidence of a return to growth”.
