Things are not going well for music industry. Despite the emergence of powerful and popular artists, the industry is struggling to
converts the numbers to cold hard cash. 2011 proved to be the consecutive seventh year to record decline in music sales. According to a report released by BPI, overall music sales declined 5.6 percent to 113.2 million in 2011.
Digital downloads are doing a little better than traditional formats such as CDs, however, there performance is still not good enough to make up for dismal performance of traditional formats. In 2011, digital download recorded 26.6 percent increase. The UK music industry sold 26.6 million digital albums in e011. However, Compact Disc sales plummeted 1e.6 percent to 86.2 million. Other media such as Vinyls reported sales figures of 389,000 albums.
The biggest blow to the industry comes from the practice of illegal downloads. The reports show that illegal downloading is on the rise. Interestingly, digital downloads have, so far, failed to hurt CD sales. Compact Discs still form 76.1 percent of total music market. Geoff Taylor, chief executive officer of BPI said, "British music fans understand that the album remains the richest way to connect with an artist’s work. Digital developments grab the headlines, but the CD remains hugely popular with consumers, accounting for three-quarters of album sales."
Singles market defied the overall trend and recorded 10 percent increase in sales to 177.9 million.