The digital music business, dominated by mobile music, will surpass physical music in sales in India, says a study by digital music company Soundbuzz. The report further notes that India is likely to be the second country in the world, after South Korea, where digital music will surpass physical music in sales.
Soundbuzz’s analysis further projects that the music industry will grow to Rs 4,100 crore in 2009 from Rs 1,450 crore in 2005. And this growth will be mainly driven by by mobile music, which will account for 88 per cent of the music industry’s revenues. Mobile music will be driven by all formats like ringtones, ringback tones, full track audio and video downloads.
The study, however, says that online music sales will remain minimal for the next three years.

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Nikhil adds:
Apropos the source of the data, Melissa Donnelly, Regional Communications Director at Soundbuzz clarifies:

The global and Asia Pacific sales information was sourced from a number of IFPI reports plus PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Entertainment & Media Outlook. The Indian market numbers were obtained from the Indian music industry and Soundbuzz’s own sales data.