Surprise? Digital have caught up to physical...
Most people would agree that digital is the future of the music business and on a global scale it has been just that, the future. If you live in pioneering countries such as the US, Sweden and Norway the aforementioned naturally seems like yesterdays news, yet for most markets, physical has remained the dominant source of revenue for recorded music. That is until now. Earlier this week Ifpi released a report revealing that 2014 was the first year in which physical and digital sales were of equal size. On a global scale physical and digital sales now account for 46% each of global recorded music revenues according to the report.
For a quick look at how different formats have developed in the US over the last 41 years, Digital Music News have put together a bunch of pie charts in this picture. The continuous developement of vinyl over the last couple of years may be surprising to some but not for the fans of Record Store Day coming up on April 18th. Record Store Day will also see the release of old Metallica demo recordings on cassette, so perhaps we should expect that part of the pie chart to grow next year?
