Korean music market has gone through as big turbulence as global or even more. Here is some numbers telling how offline CD sales has been dramatically slashed and this physical sales decline has not been offset by digital sales increase.
As for CD sales, it has marked all time high in 2000 with $450 Mil. like below. But afterwards it continued to decrease and finally last year reached the level of one-fifth of its peak. On the other hand, digital sales including online and mobile music grows by 26% CAGR, but still fail to compensate for drop in CD sales.
* Estimated 2007
(Related article written in Korean)
The thing is, unfortunately this trend would continue in 2007 and the market seems to be at a standstill. It is said that music is more popular than ever with fast penetration of music devices like music phone or mp3 player, but the industry is suffering due to piracy like illegal download and file-sharing.
10/09/2007
Korean music market : 2000 to 2007
9/19/2007
More music buyers spend less...
I came across some stats showing annual music spending in the US over the past 3 decades. It tells the number of total music consumers is actually growing despite the popular belief that fewer people are buying music. It's just that they are spending a lot less.
Definitely falling music sales per capita would be big headache to the people in music industry. But I think market potential has not gone away yet, as shown in growth of % music consumers. The bottom line is how we could make up compelling reasons for them to each spend more. What would be the answer? DRM free or great user experience(like end-to-end offering) or legal action against piracy?
8/28/2007
No. of Unique visitors in music services
It contains unique visitor information among top music service including iTunes, Rhapsody and etc.
