News

Sale of sound recordings 1991-2008

Sale of sound recordings declined by 31 per cent between the years 2008 and 2007 as counted in numbers of sold copies. In last year roughly 446,000 copies of domestic and foreign sound recordings were sold at a distributor level, or 200,000 fewer copies than in the previous year. Last year the sale value at a distributor level totalled 592 ISK million, which equals some 950 ISK million in retail value, VAT added. Included in figures about sale of sound recording are compact disks, phonograms and music cassettes at a distributor level.

Since the year 2005 sale of sound recordings has lowered 46 per cent, or some 377,000 copies. In the last year 422,000 fewer copies were sold than in the year 1999 when the sale was all-time-high at 868,000 copies. The number of copies sold in the year 2008 equals 1.4 copies per capita compared to 3.1 copies per capita in the year 1999. Declining sale of sound recordings in recent years has without doubt much to do with legal and illegal downloading of music over the Internet. Purchase of music downloaded from the Internet is not included in sales figures from distributors.

Since the turn of the century domestic releases have increased their market share sizable. During the second half of the 1990s domestic releases retained just over 40 per cent market share measured in number of sold copies and sale value. Last year market share of domestic releases was 71 and 72 per cent as counted in number of sold copies and sale value, respectively.

Information about sale of sound recordings are from annual audited circulation figures of the Icelandic National Group of the International Federation of the Phonogram Industry (IFPI). The audit covers the main Icelandic publishers and distributors in the market.