Digital Home Thoughts: Legal Music Download Market Explodes In 2004

Well this should put to rest any doubts whether legally downloadable music is taking off. According to figures released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (ok, how many of you thought that said Pornographic? ;) ), consumers in the US and Europe downloaded more than 200 million songs in the past year. Proving what we here already know...digital music is going mainstream. And it's no coincidence that growth parallels the growth of digital audio devices like the iPod and other media playback devices, which continue to proliferate at rapid pace. Demand for digital music continues to grow, while traditional media, namely CDs, continues to decline.

However, the report also shows that piracy is a lingering problem which threatens the viability of legal music downloads.