Digital Music Sales Make Up for CD Drop in Germany

BERLIN – Spotify and iTunes have come to the rescue of the German music industry. The German music industry association BVMI expects music sales this year to close on par with 2011, at around $2.2 billion (€1.67 billion).

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It would be the second year running that revenue held steady, reversing more than a decade of falling sales. Music sales here inched up 0.1 percent last year after falling steadily since 1997.

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In an interview with German news agency dapd, BVMI managing director Florian Drucke said music sales in Germany appeared to have stabilized. While physical CD sales continue to fall, “we expect the digital business to compensate for the drop,” Drucke said.

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Revenue from music downloads via services such as iTunes jumped 32 percent in Germany in the first half of this year, while online streaming revenues soared 41.6 percent to around $24 million (€18 million).

The German music industry expects revenues to tick up slightly in 2013.