Digital sales surpass CD sales for major record label Atlantic

Atlantic Records, a unit of Warner Music Group, has announced that they are the first major label to have over 50 percent of its music sales in the US come from digital downloads. 51 percent of Atlantic’s revenues now comes from digital downloads. Overall for Warner this figure is 27 percent.

While these figures are encouraging for the music industry, it seems that losses to piracy will not easily be compensated. At its peak, in 1999, music sale revenue was $14.6 billion (just before the launch of Napster). Analysts at Forrester Research say that this number will fall to $9.2 billion this year, despite the exponential rise in digital sales.

Source: After Dawn