Digital music a long way from displacing CDs

It's going to be a long time before digital music downloads challenge CD sales, even in the online world. That's the conclusion of a report by market watcher Informa Media Group (IMG), published this week. ¶ Come 2010, IMG says, global online music sales will exceed $6bn. An impressive number, but still only 15.2 per cent of total spending on music worldwide. ¶ But still a healthy sum to share among the likes of Apple's iTunes, Napster, Virgin Digital, Wal-Mart, Tesco and co., surely? Well, not quite. That figure represents not only sales of digital downloads and subscription revenue, but CDs purchased from Amazon and co. ¶ Digital downloads will account for half of the total - $3.1bn. ¶ That amounts to 7.7 per cent of total music sales, leaving CD, DVD and their successor physical formats taking 92.3 per cent of the market. ... Link: The Register.