Digital Rights Network

"It is enough to make a sceptic believe in life after death. For the past few years the music industry has been predicting the death of the singles market because of the global scourge of illegal downloading.

And what has happened? The latest figures show that 524,000 singles were sold last week in the UK, an impressive 7% increase on a year ago and no less that 44% up on sales earlier in the year, when the sirens of doom were at their loudest.

Oh, I've forgotten a small point. These figures only refer to sales of what is known in the trade as "physical" singles. If (legal) downloads are included, sales have soared by a staggering 88% in the last year to 977,000 last week."

2005-06-10
guardian article