Online Music Sales go mainstream

Online music stores broke into the mainstream in 2004, with more than 200 million tracks sold in the United States and Europe, a tenfold increase from the previous year, according to data released Wednesday.

Among well-known brands like iTunes and Napster, the number of online music stores quadrupled to more than 230 in 2004, according to the report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry trade group. The number of songs available online has doubled to 1 million songs. The trade group said research firm Jupiter expects the $330 million online music market to double in 2005.

The increasing popularity of online music stores is welcome news to a music industry that blames digital piracy for more than two years of precipitous sales declines. "The biggest challenge for the digital music business has always been to make music easier to buy than to steal. At the start of 2005, as the legitimate digital music business moves into the mainstream of consumer life, that ambition is turning into reality," said the trade group's chairman and CEO, John Kennedy.

More than 7,000 legal actions have been filed against alleged illegal uploaders.