International Undertanding Of Music Applications And Downloads

It’s been rumoured today that Apple today will be joining the likes of Google, Amazon and Sony when they finally confirm their long awaited online music cloud service at The WWDC next week. But what does this mean for the future of downloads and online music?

iCloud, as it has become known will offer users the ability to store and access tracks from an online storage space, negating the need for ‘metaphorically physically’  downloads and in turn on device storage space.

Although no firm details have been confirmed it is heavily rumored that the service will allow access to iTunes libraries and the ability to purchase tracks to on the cloud.

The online top four are all getting involved with online music streaming with Amazon recently revealing that they have reached an agreement with the majority of record labels to supply content. Google however who are currently BETA testing their online player have failed to close a deal with the big players.

Amazon have also revealed that they will be offering an initial allowance of 4GB but for every album you purchase your allowance will be increased by 1GB.

Ironically this could spell the end of the physical download as the need for having physical files that take up space will be negated. Keep an eye on this blog for the latest developments in the future of online music.

Figures released this week have revealed that music downloads have hit the £1bn mark nearly seven years since online downloads were launched.

Almost  a third of this figure (£320m) was spent on sites such as iTunes, Amazon and Play in 2010 alone, with Adele’s album 21 smashing Lady GaGa’s record to become the biggest selling online album ever

The statistics also show that downloads make up around 25% of UK music sales, almost 10% more than physical CD albums. The price of albums has also dropped by almost 50% since downloads were introduced, in 2006 the average price for an album was between £10-15 in the age of the download however customers can expect to pay no more than around £7.32 according to the International Music Industry Body (IFPI).

In the UK 1 in 5 downloaded an album during 2010 with 1 in 3 teenager only buying downloaded music not physical releases. Interestingly British artists faired the best last year with 6 out of every 10 release downloaded coming from a British act.

However the market in the UK didn’t fair as well, falling to fourth in the world for sales. It now sits behind the US,Germany and Japan for total sales. Experts are still sticking to the argument that piracy is costing the industry around £900m every year.

Geoff Taylor, the BPI’s CEO, said: “The hard work done by UK record labels in pushing forward the digital music market is paying off for consumers, digital retailers and the music community.”

Industry insiders believe that the decision to drop DRM from a lot of content has played a big part in the surge or single sales, 98% of which are downloaded. Industry newsletter editor Andy Malt said: “Download sales still account for less than half of total music sales, and don’t bring in the revenues that physical does, but we’ve certainly reached a watershed in mainstream acceptance of digital music.”

The CD industry is likely to go the way the vinyl records did, with downloads being the most popular way to buy music. The problem is of course that it is so easy to do it for free and illegally. But the question is; “is this really any different” to when the cassette tape came out in the 70′s. Many middle aged people can probably remember taping the top 20 on radio every sunday night using the modern technology of the tape recorder, this was illegal as much then as now, but did that hurt record sales?

There is a big movement that suggests that music downloads can help the sale of music as the distibution is much easier adn with the competition for radio play being so fiece downloads can be a great boost. It may also be true that people only download music wherethey still are niot sure if the like, in better words they still buy their favorite stuuf, but download less important music, which does not cost the record comapnies any money.

We will write more posts about music downloads, as and when we fnd it.