After More Than a Decade, Digital Sales Begin to Pay Off

First, the bad news for record labels:  CD sales are never coming back.  The good news?  After more than a decade of decline through the post-Napster era, digital sales are starting to replace that lost revenue--at least for one label.

Univeral Music Group is near some kind of tipping point--the positive kind--with digital music.  According to financial details earler this week, UMG dropped by 14.2 % to $1.29 billion USD. However, digital grew another 8.6% to $1.16 billion USD.  That gap will soon disappear, maybe even a little sooner than the execs had predicted.

UMG isn't the first of the big labels to hit physical-vs-digital tipping point.  Warner Music Group is close, too.  I'm not sure where Sony stands.

Sounds great, right?  It is--but it's important to go deeper.  Sales of any and all recorded music is in decline.  Any increases in revenues are coming from ventures like licensing.  Still, after more than ten years of struggle, it looks like things might have finally bottomed out.

(Via Paid Content)