February 26, 2010

By By Vladimir Kozlov, Moscow

Russia's music industry shrank by about 15% in 2009, the Moscow-based entertainment research bureau InterMedia said.

According to data collected by InterMedia, the country's legitimate music industry's turnover, including physical and digital sales, concert business and music FM stations, amounted to roughly $1 billion last year, which signifies a 15% decline from the previous year.

InterMedia's general director Yevgeny Safronov tells Billboard.biz that the situation was different for different industry sectors. "Physical CD sales were down about 20% and FM radio was down 20-25% in dollar terms," he says, adding that the concert segment still saw some growth.

Meanwhile, the total number of released albums declined from 2,300 in 2008 to 1,500 in 2009, while tracks released fell from 27,600 to 22,500.

IFPI data for Russia is not yet in, but the head of the organization's Moscow office told Billboard.biz that he generally endorses figures provided by InterMedia.

Speaking about forecasts for 2010, Safronov said that physical CD sales are likely to continue their decline, which could be 10% or even 20%, while the FM radio sector is likely to grow by about 10%.

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