8th February 2013
Part of the digital music switchover?
With HMV the latest casualty in a long list of retail failures, press has been quick to slam the web for perpetuating the ‘death of the high street’. The music industry especially, has been slow to adapt to the changing needs of consumers.
But, latest figures from the BPI (the UK music industry trade body) show that we’re fast becoming a nation of ‘digital listeners’. In what’s been coined a ‘digital music switchover’, 19.6% of music buyers now only purchase digital music, with a quarter of us downloading or streaming songs legally last year. We streamed 3.7bn tracks, bought 30.5m digital albums, and 183.3m digital singles – a five-fold increase in a decade. Plus, digital deals outstripped CD and record sales for the first time.
Retailers have to adapt to digital demand to survive. We’re a nation of digital shoppers, and rather than seeing the web as a threat, they should see the massive opportunities of putting it at the heart of their business. In doing so, they can increase footfall, improve customer experience, cut costs – and keep the high street alive.
Are you part of the ‘digital music switchover’? Tell us below