A new PricewaterhouseCoopers report released today estimates that digital-music sales will surpass physical-format sales in three years. So that has to be good news, right? Please?
[According to the report], spending in the U.S. will be dropping about 0.4% a year for the next five years, reaching an expected $11.3 billion in 2011, down from the $11.5 billion spent in 2006. Report predicts that sales will drop again this year, to $10.48 billion, and next, to $10.43 billion, but will start to recover in 2009...
Driving the digital marketplace will be new mobile services, attractive pricing, enhanced interoperability and record-store closings. Ringtunes, for example, are expected to bring in $1.58 billion in 2011, nearly double the $800 million predicted for this year. Ringtones, meanwhile, will practically disappear.
So ti summarize: In two years, there will be no record stores, nobody will be making any money, and every movie-going experience will be interrupted by teenagers playing full-length Ashley Tisdale songs on their Nokia. Does that count as a depression?
Music sales shifting to digital globally [Variety]
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