“Downloads did more than double in 2005. but they still account for less than 5 per cent of total music sales. “

I wrote: “Doing the math, Nielsen's numbers would seem to indicate that digital downloads accounts for only 5 percent of music sold, but now account for over one third of the music industry's gross sales revenue.”

I shouldn't have lumped digital download revenue with CD sales, although that's exactly what Nielsen does. (Music sales via cassette, and vinyl are negligible in SoundScan's reports; DVD is tracked separately.) At the time I was just thinking that the numbers need to omit licensing revenues, etc., which Nielsen doesn't cover.

Another way of phrasing it – but making it even more dramatic and potentially misleading – would be to say that revenue from digital downloads now exceeds half the revenue from CD album sales while accounting for only 5 percent of units sold. That's problematic because of that apples-to-oranges question of what a “unit” might be.

In response to other queries..

I wrote: “Preliminary numbers show music album sales in the U.S. dropped 7 percent in 2005.” That's exactly what everyone else is reporting too.

I also wrote: “Considering 95 percent of music is still sold in CD format” which is also being reported elsewhere:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4566186.stm“ title=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4566186.stm“ target=”blank” rel=”nofollow”>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4566186.s…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801367.html“ title=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801367.html“ target=”blank” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic…

“How do album sales drop 7% but still hold 95% of the market??”

The percentages refer to different things. Sales of CDs in 2005 dropped 7 percent from 2004 figures. The sales of CDs sold in 2005 account for 95 of music sold in 2005.

“According to Nielsen SoundScan, the information system that tracks sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada, sales of music CDs in the States are down almost 7 percent from last year. Album sales in 2004 totaled 480.6 million; sales through late October of this year reached 446.9 million.

Meanwhile, legal digital downloading shows no signs of slowing down. Nielsen reported digital sales in 2004 of 101 million. Spurred by the iPod revolution, that number grew to 264.4 million this year. There are more than 230 online sites where consumers can buy music legally, up from 50 a year ago, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. “

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/21/DDGM2GAVB91.DTL“ title=”http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/21/DDGM2GAVB91.DTL“ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2…

Geoff Duncan needs to pay more attention to what he writes:

“Preliminary numbers show music album sales in the U.S. dropped 7 percent in 2005″

“Considering 95 percent of music is still sold in CD format”

How do album sales drop 7% but still hold 95% of the market??

Your news postings are usually pretty good, but this one was sloppy, please provide links backing up your data.