Germany Hits Record With More Than 100 Million Legal Music Downloads

3:54 AM PST 1/15/2013 by Scott Roxborough

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The country for the first time crossed the milestone last year as digital track sales jumped 22.9 percent.

BERLIN -- iTunes, Spotify and similar legal online music offerings saw double-digit growth in the German market last year, with the industry for the first time passing the milestone of 100 million legal music downloads in the territory.

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Official figures from the German Recording Industry Association, the BVMI, Tuesday said there were a total of 115 million online music transactions in 2012, a 22.4 percent year-over-year increase.

The bulk of those were sales of individual songs, with 97 million tracks sold, a 22.9 percent jump compared with 2011.

But album sales were also strong, with 16 million full album downloads, a 20.6 percent increase. The BVMI said full-length albums accounted for more than half (55 percent) of total download revenue in the industry last year.

The association did not release revenue figures, however, which will be published along with data for Germany’s online streaming market in March.