The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) released figures showing that sales of digital music were steady in 2009, with revenue the same as the previous year.
Internet downloads continued their rise, while digital units sold via mobile phone stemmed their recent slide to more or less hold steady with 2008. In general, the mobile market still dominates Japan.
The total number of digital units delivered, including downloads, was 468 million, which was down 2% compared to 2008, but total revenue was 91 billion yen ($993 million), equivalent to the total from last year.
The total number of Internet downloads rose to 46.8 million, up 12% compared to 2008, and this represents revenue of 10.2 billion yen ($111.3 million), up 13% from a year earlier.
Mobile music units delivered overall were down 4% to 421.3 million but revenue fell only 1% to 79.2 billion yen ($864 million). Within the mobile realm, ringtones continued to lose market share, falling 19% in value to 16.4 billion yen ($178.8 million), while ringback tunes jumped 15% in value to 9.8 billion yen ($107 million) and full track units solidified their dominant position in the mobile market, rising 4% in value to 49.4 billion yen ($538.7 million).
