Music industry sales figures in Germany

Berlin, 30th March 2007

• Download sales rise by 40%
• Downloads and mobile combined make up 5% of sales
• Internet is second most important distribution channel for CD sales

The internet is advancing to become one of the most important sources of optimism in the music industry in Germany. Download sales in 2006 rose by 40% to 42 million euro and sales of CDs over the internet are becoming ever more important.

With a 17.9% share (16.8% in 2005) of sales, the web is now the second most important distribution channel after electrical stores with 30% (30.8% in 2005). Since the download market has not yet been able to compensate for the decrease in sales of traditional sound carriers, record sales overall decreased slightly compared with the previous year by 2.4% to 1.706 billion euro. The CD (albums and singles) remains the principal source of sales at 85%, followed by music videos at 9%. Downloads and mobile sales combined made up for 5% of sales.

"Despite our success in reducing the amount of internet piracy, the high number of illegal downloads and the constantly increasing number of private copies are still an obstacle in our endeavours to bring about a turn around," said Peter Zombik, Managing Director of the German Phonographic Association in Berlin, on Thursday.

There are positive developments in certain sectors of the business, such as the classical music sector. In contrast to the general trend, sales of sound and image carriers featuring classical music rose in 2006 by 6% in comparison with the previous year. The growing importance of German-language music is also a positive element in the German charts. In 2006 for example, the charts share of German-language albums increased from 35.3% in 2005 to 38.1%; in 2000 the share was a mere 19.5%. The figures look even better when it comes to the singles charts, where German-language recordings again trumped the international competition with a 53.2% share.

In all, about 186 million physical sound carriers (CDs, DVDs, LPs, MCs) were sold in 2006, 2.7 million fewer than in the previous year. While sales of CD albums rose from 147.6 million units in 2005 to 149.5 million, and even sales of DVD videos rose by 10.1% to 14.2 million, the overall decrease is mainly due to losses in sales of CD singles and in analogue formats like LP, MC and VHS. In 2006 for instance only 15.9 million CD singles were sold, representing an 11% drop compared to the previous year's figure. Conversely, sales in the non-physical sector increased. The number of single downloads from the internet (25.2 million) was up 28%, while the number of album downloads (1.9 million) increased by 36%.

Even though it was possible to combat internet piracy and push down the number of illegal music downloads from 412 million in 2005 to 384 million in 2006, these figures still represent one legal download to 14 illegal ones. The number of private copies remains about the same. One in two Germans above the age of ten burns CDs or DVDs. Since figures were first analysed in 1999 the number of people burning CDs or DVDs has increased almost fourfold from 7.9 million to 31.4 million.

Music is by far the most popular content being burned onto CDs; 70% of all people are engaged in this form of copying. In 2006 the number of music CD copies was, at 486 million, about 10% higher than in the previous year. The relationship of bought to copied CDs therefore continues to deteriorate and is at present at over 1:3. This figure does not include private music copies on MP3 players, USB sticks, mobile telephones or computer hard disks.

About the German Phono Associations

The German Phono Associations (Bundesverband der Phonographischen Wirtschaft, Deutsche Landesgruppe der IFPI, Deutsche Phono Akademie) are an amalgamation of the interests of the German music industry. Their members include about 350 music labels representing more than 90% of the German music business. As a business umbrella confederation, the Phono Associations are active at German and European level in acting on behalf of and in the interests of the German music business. As a service provider, they offer their members a wide range of advisory, information and service facilities such as legal assistance and the Phononet GmbH network. In addition, the German Phono Academy acts as a cultural institute for the German music business and organises a number of events, including the SchoolTour, which makes an important contribution to basic music training in German schools. www.ifpi.de, www.school-tour.de, www.echopop.de, www.echoklassik.de, www.pro-musicorg.de, www.phononet.de