According to a survey by market researcher Forrester, online music sales are set to grow rapidly over the next five years. Traditional music sales are expected to make up almost two thirds of revenues in 2011, though; the old means of buying music are not going to die out any time soon. There will, however, be a 30 percent decline in European sales of traditional music formats like CDs and DVDs, with the gap being filled by services like iTunes.
Online sales are seen growing more than tenfold to 3.9 billion euros ($4.70 billion) in 2011 from 279 million euros ($335.17 million) in 2006.
The total music sales market will grow to nearly 11 billion euros ($13.21 billion) by 2011, up from less than 9.5 billion euros ($11.41 billion) now, as the new sales channels will boost demand.
A shift to online music will mean more sales of single tracks, as opposed to whole albums. Mobile technology firms, as well as services companies like mBlox and NewVisions have recently announced innovations in online music.