Via: paidContent

One part of the music business has finally reached the fabled tipping point at which digital income offsets declining physical sales.

UK royalty collector PRS For Music, announcing 2009 income, says: “(Digital) growth (£12.8 million) outperformed the decline in traditional CD and DVD formats (down £8.7 million) for the first time, though the legal online music market is still comparatively small.”

Royalty income from online grew a big 72.7 percent (to £30.4 million), “reflecting the increased number of legal licensed digital music services available in the UK and across Europe”.

And this helped push total PRS income up 2.6 percent to £623 million, though most of that effect was contributed from more overseas income, now that PRS is collecting European royalties for some artists and publishers.

The digital tipping point could be a watershed for the industry, which has so far been unable to substitute its shrinking CD sales with rising digital sales… [Read More]