ITV

Tag: HMV

  • Amazon is gung-ho for digital music giveaway

    Amazon is gung-ho for digital music giveaway

    MUMBAI: Online retailer Amazon has stepped up the battle for music sales by announcing it will give away digital versions when customers buy CDs and vinyl records – and they will be backdated for any past purchases.

    The free MP3 service, called AutoRip, will enable music fans to have instant access to music they have bought – several days before their purchases arrive in the post.

    The company has already lined up in excess of 350,000 albums for AutoRip with more to be added, and said there will be no knock-on effect on prices.

    Tracks will be added to their AmazonCloud Player account and can be either streamed or downloaded to devices such as iPhones, iPads, Kindles and smartphones.

    AutoRip – which gives consumers their purchases in two formats – will be seen as a new weapon in the fight for dominance in the music sector against rivals such as iTunes which specialises in only digital versions.

    The Amazon site will show whether AutoRip versions are available when consumers check out information about potential purchases, although it will not work if items were bought as gifts for other people. And it does not apply to items bought from private sellers in the Amazon Marketplace – only those bought directly from Amazon.

    Latest figures for the UK market show Amazon became the leading music retailer in 2012, accounting for 25.6 per cent of expenditure (15.3 per cent for home delivery and 10.3 per cent downloads) and taking over from troubled HMV, which had been in front the previous year.

    But iTunes is way out in front for digital sales, and represents 22.5 per cent of the entire music market – up from 17.9 per cent the previous year – according to data from Kantar Worldpanel, which is used by the British Phonographic Industry. Both companies will be keen to push up their share, particularly after HMV went into administration earlier this year and is now operating on a smaller scale after formerly being the market leader for physical sales.

    Amazon‘s AutoRip will be backdated to purchases of CDs, vinyl or cassettes since its music store was established in 1999, if a digital version is available.

  • Online music sales in Europe to help reverse decline in music sales in 2010

    Online music sales in Europe to help reverse decline in music sales in 2010

    MUMBAI: A new report by media researchers Screen Digest, Online Music in Europe: Market Assessment and Forecast predicts that rapidly growing online music sales in Europe will start to halt the decline in overall sales of recorded music, but not until 2010.

    The total European market for online music will have more than doubled from Euro 121 million in 2005 to a forecast Euro 280 million by the end of this year. By 2010 consumer spending on online music in Europe will generate more than Euro 1.1 billion.

    This explosive growth is being driven by rapidly growing broadband penetration and the massive increase in portable music player usage. Over seven per cent of Europeans now use one, up from two per cent in 2004. By the end of 2005 there were 29 million portable music players in Europe and this figure will rise to more than 80 million by 2010.

    However, the big picture is not so rosy for the overall European music market, which has been in decline – losing 22 per cent of its total value since 2001. Screen Digest predicts the market will continue to fall until 2010, at which point online music sales of more than Euro 1 billion a year will begin to offset the decline in physical sales.

    Screen Digest analyst and author of the report Dan Cryan comments, “Online music has been booming. However, online sales alone are not going to be enough to halt the decline in music sales. The music industry needs to make the most of new delivery platforms. We believe with the right strategy – including mobile and online – that the worst might be over by 2010. The industry must adopt a broader approach to selling music, looking beyond the traditional single and album.”

    The report analyses the causes of declining revenues for the music industry and shows that a wider view must be taken to understand and address the change in consumer behavior. It is easy to point the finger at piracy but data from music industry body IFPI suggests that piracy is declining. The number of tracks available on illegal file sharing networks declined from 1.1 billion euros in 2003 to 885 million euros in 2005.

    Instead factors like the gradual erosion of music dedicated shelf space in big retailers, like HMV and Virgin and its replacement with DVDs, books and mobile phones cannot be ignored. Seen in this light the fact that the decline in physical music sales corresponds to the boom in DVD sales begins to look less like a coincidence and more like a cause.