Digital single-track sales are down over the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period in 2012. The decline has accelerated quarter-over-quarter, with the July-Aug-Sep period showing a 6-percent skid, according to Billboard. Digital album sales have fared better this year, gaining 2.6% over 2012, although the third quarter showed a similar summertime dip as single-track sales.
Download doldrums match the consumer trend toward Internet radio as an important venue for music discovery and the “access model” of ownership. Recent audience metrics reports from Triton and Pandora indicate that webcasting and Internet radio adoption is gradually and steadily climbing upward. As mobile listening crosses multiple devices, environments, and dayparts, access to cloud-based music jukeboxes takes the place of unit purchases and local storage.
Apple and Google hedge their bets by operating on both sides of the fence, offering digital albums and tracks for sale, as well as customized listening to enormous catalogs of music. As a third leg of the stool, both services also provide cloud storage of owned music files — a hybrid of the ownership and access models.