Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Digital Music Sales Surpass CD Sales at Atlantic

by Darren Murph on November 26, 2008 at 09:51 AM



Yep, it finally happened. One label has come forward and admitted that, for the first time, digital sales of its music have surpassed CDs. While many pundits asserted that loosing tunes via tiny downloadable files would instantaneously cause the deep-pocketed record labels to crumble as piracy ran rampant, the numbers tell a different story. In fact, music sales overall have declined from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $10.1 billion this year, and it's expected to shrink further.

But for Atlantic, moving tracks on the information superhighway has proven quite successful; last quarter, digital sales accounted for 51% of its revenue, while CD sales still make up over two-thirds of all music sales industry-wide. There's no real indication as to why Atlantic seems to have that digital charm while everyone else is still clinging tight to old world business models, but it's sure nice to see this side of the equation thriving.

Now, about those DRM-free downloads across the board...

[Image courtesy of Dexondaz]

Tags: breaking news, BreakingNews, business, CDs, digital music, DigitalMusic, music, music industry, MusicIndustry

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular