The Digital Revolution

The birth of digital has brought about a virtual revolution in the way people choose to consume and enjoy entertainment and has led to profound innovation in the music industry.

Record companies are making music available in hundreds of different formats today including music videos, mastertones, ringback tones and audio tracks. And the number of licensed music services worldwide has grown 800% since 2003!

Unfortunately, the ease with which a file can be transferred has also led to large-scale illegal file-sharing. This piracy continues to harm artists and the many people who collaborate in order to create music.

• In 2009, digital accounted for 27% of the music sold worldwide

• In 2003 there were 1 million tracks licensed worldwide; in 2009, over 11 million

• In 2003 there were 50 licensed music services worldwide; in 2009, over 400

• Services include buying tracks or albums from download stores, using services that are bundled with devices, buying mobile apps for music and listening to music through streaming services

Canada’s story

• In 2009 digital accounted for 20% of music sold but while digital sales have increased, they have not made up for lost physical sales

• 70% of digital sales consist of online track or album sales

• While consumers in the UK have 69 licensed music services to choose from, Canadians have far fewer

• In virtually every country in the world, spending on recorded music has fallen since illegal file-sharing became widespread

• In the UK, nearly 1 in 4 P2P file-sharers (24%) typically spend nothing on music (Harris Interactive, 2009)

•  “because it’s free” is the main motivation cited by over 400 illegal file-sharers in Sweden (GFK, 2009)

•  While P2P file-sharing remains most damaging form of piracy, there has been a sharp rise in non-P2P piracy

• Overall sales of recorded music in Canada have fallen by half in the last decade

• Canada has one of the highest rates of P2P file-sharing in the world (IFPI, Recording Industry in Numbers 2010)

• A report commissioned by the Canadian Intellectual Property Council which analyzes survey data collected by Industry Canada shows that the availability of P2P file-sharing, reduces demand for paid music