A new Digital Market Outlook study says that the increasing adoption of broadband and mobile technologies and the widespread adoption of smartphones and portable music devices continue to drive the digital music marketplace. Key findings:
- The global digital music market will grow from $4.81bn in 2009 to $13.74bn by 2013
- The industry is characterized by rapidly changing structure and an evolving value chain. New players are entering the market for digital music distribution and rapidly expanding their revenue streams to match consumer demands. Various partnerships and tie-ups are emerging between players across the value chain.
- Music piracy remains the most critical challenge. Another major issue is interoperability across various digital music services and devices, which is being dealt with by shifting towards DRM-free music downloads.
- The global digital music market has significant growth potential. The relatively more developed markets include the US, Japan and western European countries such as the UK, France and Germany. Emerging markets that present enormous potential include China, India and Brazil.
