Although the number of digitized music downloads from the internet is on the increase, data carriers in polymer materials are still far from being obsolete – quite on the contrary, in fact. While Germany’s music industry association, Bundesverband Musikindustrie e.V. (BVMI), reports that download sales increased by 29 % last year, giving the digital market a share of some 17 % in Germany on the basis of the latest BVMI estimates, the CD still remains the backbone of the domestic music industry, accounting for threequarters of all sales. No distinction is made here between digital and analog recording and the conservation technology employed, i. e. between compact discs (CD) and longplaying records (LP), but simply between the distribution forms, i. e. physically or via the internet. A closer look at the statistical graphs shows that, in terms of sales volume, the CD has lost about 30 % of its share over the past ten years. Just under 100 million CDs are still sold each year, however.

Direct link: http://www.kunststoffe-international.com/PE012041