The worldwide recorded music industry's revenue grew 0.3 percent to $16.5 billion last year, the first increase in more than decade, as more people downloaded music and used online streaming sites.
Adele's "21" was the best-selling album and Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" was the best-selling single, an industry group representing music labels said in a statement on Feb. 26. Digital sales rose 9 percent to $5.6 billion and now account for about 34 percent of total revenue, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The improvement is welcome for an industry battered by piracy, the shuttering of record shops and declining sales of CDs. Digital sales of music now account for the majority of record companies' revenue in countries including the United States, Norway, Sweden and India, the IFPI said.