With music, digital sales up but DVD down
PHYSICAL: Short-form videos more popular than long-form
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 5/29/2009
MAY 29 | PHYSICAL: Digital music video sales are increasing each year, but sales of music DVDs are mostly in decline, creating a revenue challenge for labels.
Digital programming is largely short-form rather than long-form and priced much lower than physical product, so the increase in digital sales doesn’t make up for the loss of revenue from physical formats.
In 2008, physical music video sales, mainly music DVDs, were down 54% in units and 55% in dollar value from 2007, with dollar value down to $218.9 million from $484.9 million.
Digital music video sales were up 47% in both units and dollar value in 2008 over 2007, but dollar value rose to only $41.3 million from $28.2 million—which beats zero revenue from piracy but doesn’t come close to physical sales.
