In one of those days off, I decided to pick up IFPI’s 2007 Digital Music Report. As a quick glowing summary:

• The pace of transformation of the digital music industry is breathtaking;
• Digital music business continues to grow;
• This is a $2 billion industry;
• Almost 500 legitimate online music services across the globe.

Globally, IFPI estimates there were almost 800 million single tracks download in 2006 from over 498 online music services in over 40 countries. This represents a growth of 89% since 2005. This pales in comparison with an estimated 20 billion pirated tracks downloaded in the same period.

On closer inspection, the lion share of the market is held within the U.S., U.K. and Germany with 83% of the single tracks downloaded in 2006. There are also currently 320 online music services in Europe ALONE, holding almost 65% of the global represented online music services.

Japan viewed by many as a success case study of mobile music with over 95% downloaded digital music via mobile… I can only guess the revenue impact is minimal.

In the same report, Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group was quoted with “In this internet age, the consumer is using music content more than ever before – whether that’s play listing, podcasting, personalizing, sharing, downloading, or just simply enjoying it.” This was followed with a comment that acknowledges that “Consumers are changing the way they discover, access, and listen to music.”

With digital music experience strongly centered in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, are the characteristics of music fans across the globe similar? e.g. Brazil versus China versus India? Because business models shown so far across the globe seems similar especially how online music services are presented!

The same way how Japan, Korea and China rate ringback tones…is it experiencing the similar high adoption rate in Europe and the US?