Earlier this month, Nielsen SoundScan released an optimistic-sounding report on 2006 music sales. Today, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry(they're the ones with dirigibles and secret hideouts, right?) is telling the press that digital music sales doubled in 2006, but didn't increase enough to make up for falling CD sales. The Federation's 2006 report itself is annoyingly vague about said CD sales. I could find only one specific figure: "Global CD sales fell by 23 percent in value between 2000 and 2005," which doesn't help you really understand CD sales vs. digital music sales in this context. The report does, of course, spend a few glossy pages talking about lawsuits against uploaders and peer-to-peer services, and the importance of copyright education. Translation: Digital music sales are up, but not enough that they're going to stop talking down to consumers.
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