Music fans turn up volume of legal downloads: study

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — Music fans worldwide downloaded 420 million songs legally over the Internet in 2005, a 20-fold increase from two years ago, amid signs in some markets that the tide is turning against digital piracy, research showed.

Record labels reaped a 1.1-billion-dollar (911-million-euro) harvest from digital downloads, up from 380 million dollars the previous year, with about 40 percent of this revenue earned from music for mobile phones.

The research, published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an industry-sponsored body, came a day after Apple Computer reported a 95-percent rise in quarterly profits.

Apple is credited with helping kickstart the legal download industry with its sleek iPod music player and its iTunes website,...