BERLIN – In the first half of 2011 digital music download revenue in Germany increased 25%. This according to the market research institutes Media Control in Baden Baden and GfK in Nuremberg on behalf of the German music industry association (BVMI). Last year in Germany digital music-downloads had a share of 15 percent or €204 million (about $295.2 million) of 2010’s total music revenues, about €1.489 billion euro ($2.15 billion).
Double digit gains were made in both single-track sales up 32.3% and album downloads up over 22%. The biggest digital market gainer with a revenue share gain of 44% are bundles, i.e. a compilation albums, which increased 37 percent over 2010 to €91 million euros ($131.6 million). Second were download-single tracks which increased to a 30.2% market-share with €61 million euros ($88.3 million) and subscriptions such as Napster, Musicload Nonstop or simfy Premium generated the third most revenues with €14 million ($20.2 million).
The biggest decrease in digital revenues came from “realtones” – ringtones — which decreased 17.7%.
“The download-market is not nearly exhausted yet,” said Dr. Florian Drücke, managing director of the BVMI to Billboard in Berlin. “We will continue to have increasing turnover-figures, “
In 2010 physical products still made 86.3 percent of the total turnover of music-sales in Germany, but that number is expected to drop in 2011.
According to the GfK-research the number of download-buyers increased to 6.7 million in 2010, up 24 percent compared to 2009. The number of people using download-platforms has more than doubled during the past five years according to the same reporte. In Germany music fans can now choose from over 70 online-music-services, among them Amazon MP3, AOL Musik, Finetunes, iTunes Germany, Last.fm, Musicload, Napster, simfy, T-Mobile Music, Vodafone.
Sascha Heinen, Head of Musicload & DT Music, part of the Deutsche Telekom AG in Bonn, said to Billboard: “From our observations, one of the main reasons for the increase in digital music being sold in Germany is due to the ever-improving telecommunications infrastructure. Telekom has been continually investing time and money into improving digital networking in Germany. More and more households have access to broadband Internet making it a great deal easier to find and purchase online media.”
Heinen also cited advances in smartphones, mp3 players and other portable devices before concluding that he anticipates the “15% market share that Germany currently has in legal music distribution will increase to at least 50% over the next year.”
In Austria and Switzerland the sales of legal music-downloads has increased by more than a quarter in the first half of 2011. There were 26% more downloads of digital products of 2010’s total €186.4 million ($270 million) of which €22 million ($31.8 million) were digital. Switzerland reports an increase of nearly 32 percent to €26.3 million ($38 million) of a total 2010 music revenues of €147.4 million ($213.5 million).