This is taken from digital music news -

Long Tail author Chris Anderson recently pointed to a growing music industry, and rolled out the data to prove it. Of course, the physical retail sector is sinking, though Anderson isolated the mess during a recent blog entry. “It’s a big mistake to equate the major labels and their plastic disc business with the industry as a whole,” Anderson said. “Indeed, when you stand back and look at all of music, things don’t look so bad at all.”

In the absence of a more comprehensive study of the broader business, Anderson loosely compiled data to prove the point. A Pollstar figure showed concert industry revenues up 3.7 percent for the first half of this year, and Nielsen download data revealed a 46 percent year-over-year climb during the first nine months this year.

Other information pointed to gains across ringtones, artist-related advertising and sponsorships, and even vinyl. Anderson also highlighted continued iPod sales increases, a serious revenue-generator for Apple. “So the problem with the music labels is not that music is an industry in decline, but that they have a too-narrow view of what business they’re in,” Anderson asserted.

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