Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 17, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
A few days before the start of the Popkomm music fair, the Federal Association for Information Economy, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) announced on Sunday in Berlin that in 2007 Germans are downloading more music from the Internet than ever before. Revenue from downloads to computers is expected to climb to 60 million euros.
Both individual songs and complete albums are included. Compared with 2006, the market is thus growing by 25 percent. At that time, 48 million euros in revenue was generated. The basis for the figures is a survey by the market research institute GfK for BITKOM.
„The download market got off to a strong start in 2007. In the first six months alone, Germans downloaded music worth 27 million euros to their computers. In the same period of the previous year it was only 21 million euros“, said Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, President of BITKOM.
The industry also expects a significant increase in sales volume. The number of downloads is climbing to around 34 million individual songs and albums in the current year. That is 30 percent more than in 2006 (26 million units). Here too, the basis for the forecast is the course of business in the first half of the year. Between January and June 2007, 16 million individual songs and albums had already been downloaded. By comparison: In the same period of the previous year, the figure was just under 12 million.
The success of the digital music market is primarily due to demand from men. The figures for the first half of 2007 show this. The industry generated only every third euro (33 percent) with female buyers. The picture is similarly clear in the age structure. Young people in particular accounted for growth in downloads. The group of under-30s accounted for just under half of revenue (44 percent).
Further Links:
- BITKOM
