Global online music sales doubled in 2006

January 18, 2007 Global online music sales nearly doubled in 2006 to about $2 billion, or 10% of all sales, but failed to compensate for an overall decline in sales of CDs, the global music industry trade body said Wednesday. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or the IFPI, also said it would move to sue Internet service providers if they continued to allow identified digital music pirates -- a costly scourge of the industry -- to use their networks. The IFPI said early last year that it expected online sales to grow enough to compensate globally for the declines that the industry has recorded over the past five years due to illegal file-sharing, piracy and competition from new media.

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