(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Fueled by the popularity of streaming, digital music has matched and will likely soon surpass physical formats in the money it generates, a global industry group said Tuesday.
The IFPI, the London-based body for the recording business, described the boom in streaming services as good news for the industry even though overall revenue still slipped in 2014.
For the first time, digital and physical music sales were roughly even with each representing 46 percent of revenue for the industry, with rights for performances, films and advertisements making up the rest.
"I think we will be looking in the next couple of years at digital surpassing physical," said Frances Moore, chief executive of the IFPI, which stands for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
"We are seeing that streaming is really leading the digital market, and we can imagine a time when digital will be the majority of music sales," she told AFP.
Subscription services - which allow users to listen to unlimited music - still account for a fraction of the industry but revenue shot up 39 percent last year to $1.57 billion, according to the IFPI.
The group estimated that 41 million people worldwide pay for music subscription services such as Swedish-based industry leader Spotify or Paris-based Deezer.
In a sign of the expected growth of the market, hip-hop mogul Jay Z recently bought the Tidal streaming service which he relaunched in collaboration with stars including Madonna and Daft Punk.
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