Over the Christmas period many people will have purchased some sort of a game, music or video for a family member or friend as a gift. Buying a digital download is the easiest option, but will it ever surpass the feeling of giving a physical product?
High street retailers like HMV will be hoping physical formats remain resilient
According to figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), sales of digital music, games and videos exceeded the £1 billion mark in 2012. With an increase of 11.4 per cent overall, it would be easy to assume physical copies could be becoming extinct, but would it be wrong to believe this?
From 2011 to 2012 digital music sales increased by 15.1 per cent, video sales increased by 20.3 per cent and videogames were up by 7.7 per cent.
On the other hand it was all downhill for physical sales. Music sales were down by 14.9 per cent, DVD and Blue-ray sales dropped by 11.4 per cent and videogames were down by a whopping 26.4 per cent.
However although these figures looks pretty bleak, the physical disk still accounts for over 60 per cent of all entertainment sales.
Speaking of the figures, Kim Bayley Director General at ERA, said: “Despite digital’s seemingly inexorable growth, the CD, the DVD and the physical games disc show incredible resilience.
“It is nearly nine years since iTunes launched in the UK yet over 60% of music sales are still accounted for by physical formats.”
Although we cannot distinguish where the sales were made, either online or on the high street, the findings are good news for the likes of HMV who’s main products are CD’s and DVD’s.
So in response to the above question, are physical copies becoming extinct? The answer is pretty clear as Kim says, “It is clearly way too soon to write off the CD and in video, digital barely gets a look in.”
Do you believe the growth in digital downloads will lead to high street properties selling CDs and games disappearing or do you agree that there will always be a demand for the physical product? Tell us what you think below.
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