(Image courtesy of thegadgetguycolumn)Perhaps it’s a bit of a case of “iTunes 10 Envy”? Hot off the release of the new version of iTunes, a new rumor out today is that Google is working on negotiating with music labels to try and secure licensing…
The music market has been looking pretty grim for years, with sales on a downward slide since 1999. According to paidContentUK, in 2009 alone, profits dropped from $18.3 billion to $17 billion. Certainly, that’s still a lotta billions, but its easy to see why so many record companies and recording artists are up in arms over online music piracy and file sharing.
But in the midst of all the fiscal drama, AppleInsider brings a bit of happy news: Digital music sales have grown by $363 million dollars last year, making for a full quarter of the world’s total financial return on the sale of tunes, songs and diddies.
Where is the Apple angle in all of this?
The folks that tally up these sorts of numbers — the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry — report that iTunes is responsible for a full quarter of of all digital and retail music sales made in the United States.
It’s speculated by AppleInsider that Apple’s contribution to total music sales revenue can only be expected to rise should their much-rumored introduction of a subscription-based streaming music service ever come to fruition.
Warner Music announced its quarterly results on Tuesday, among which was the not entirely surprising news that higher digital music prices have led sales growth to slow.
