iTWire - Classical music fans embrace downloads 'appassionata'

Classical music fans embrace downloads 'appassionata'

by Stuart Corner
Friday, 19 January 2007
Seems it not only popular music fans who are embracing downloaded music: classical music label Sony BMG Masterworks has, for the first time, seen a new album sell more copies by download in its first week than on CD. Register now to win a Canon EOS 500D The album, 'Appassionata' (passionately), by world-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma, was released on January 9 and achieved the all-time highest percentage of first week digital sales for a Billboard Top 200 release on Sony BMG as well as peeking a number two on iTunes' overall album charts. It finished the week in fourth place with 57.1 percent of all sales being by download. Sony BMG says Yo-Yo Ma intends to focus on the opportunities afforded in the digital world, and to this end Sony Classical has created a podcast series based around the Appassionata album, to be featured on iTunes' podcast page. Also, his entire catalogue is now available for digital purchase. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported this week that the record industry generated revenues of almost $2 billion in 2006 from online and mobile device sales, an 80 percent increase over 2005. However this increase failed to compensate for the loss of revenue from reduced CD sales: overall revenues declind by about three percent. {moscomment} Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Add New Tag... Please Enter New Tags Separated By Comma's Or Close Internet Music Stuart Corner iTunes Powered By Joomla Tags