March 03, 2010

By By Wolfgang Spahr, Berlin

The Austrian music market reached a total turnover of ?182 million ($248 million) in 2009, down 1.6% from the 2008 total of ?185 million ($252 million).

The Austrian market had unit sales of 22.1 million in 2009 for physical records, single downloads and digital bundles, an increase of 3% on 2008's 21.5 million units in 2008. The online music market had an increase of 39%: its turnover was ?15.8 million ($22 million), compared to ?11.4 million ($16 million) in 2008.

The results were announced by the association of the Austrian music industry in Vienna.

In Austria, 600,000 music consumers paid for legal downloads last year, an increase of 50% compared to 2008. The number of download stores in Austria increased to more than 20.

With an increase in turnover of 155% to ?5.6 million ($8 million), album downloads are for the first time the most important segment for the online market by value. In 2009, mastertones had a turnover of ?2.2 million ($3 million), but this represented a decline of 37% on the previous year.

Downloads of single songs have also increased - by 93% to ?5.2 million ($7 million). The development of subscription and streaming offers was also very positive, with an increase of 88% for revenue of ?320,000 ($437,000). Music video downloads increase 300% to ?240,000 ($327,000).

For physical records, a fall of 6% was reported for revenue of ?162.5 million ($222 million). The association said 12.2 million physical records were sold in 2009, a fall of 6% on the 13 million unit sales in 2008.

"Buying music via the Internet or mobile phones becomes more and more interesting for consumers and therefore strengthens the motor of growth of the music market," said Franz Medwenitsch, managing director of the association of the Austrian music-industry in Vienna, in a statement.

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