The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) has released data for sales of digital music delivery during the January to March 2009 period. Internet downloads are on the rise, while digital units sold via mobile phone are down slightly and sales are shifting towards ringback tunes.
The total number of digital units delivered was 118.3 million, which was down 2% compared to the same period last year, but total revenue was 22.5 billion yen ($234.4 million), equivalent to the total from the same period last year.
Internet downloads including singles, albums and videos stood at 11.4 million units, up 15% for the same period from last year and the revenue, at 2.5 billion yen ($25.5 million), rose by 18%.
In general, the mobile market, which dominates digital music in Japan, held steady. Mobile units were down 4% overall at 106.9 million but revenue fell only 2% to 19.6 billion yen ($204 million). The market is shifting within the mobile realm, though. Ringtunes saw a big drop in revenue, falling 24%, while ringback tunes jumped 28% in value and full track units rose 4%.
In other digital news, download service Mora, run by the up-and-coming digital content provider Digital Gate, has struck a deal with Yahoo! Japan to sell its MP3 content on their products page. Yahoo! Japan is the most visited Web site in Japan, according to research by Web information company Alexa.
