The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) released digital music figures for the first quarter of 2010 and they show sales down for mobile, but up for Internet Downloads. Overall sales were down year-on-year.
The digital music market in Japan is dominated by sales of mobile units.
The total number of digital units delivered, including internet downloads, was 111.9 million, down 5% compared to the same quarter in 2009. Total revenue from digital sales, however, was 22 billion yen ($244 million), down 2% from the same quarter last year.
Internet downloads rose 4% in volume compared to the same quarter in 2009 for a total of 11.8 million, representing revenue of 2.7 billion yen ($29.9 million), up 9% from a year earlier.
Mobile music units overall fell 6% to 100 million and revenue dropped 3% to 19 billion yen ($210 million). Ringtones plunged 20% in value to 3.5 billion yen ($38.8 million). The growth of full track sales via mobile seems to have faltered as they gained only 3% in value to 12.1 billion yen ($134 million).
