For the first time since it started reporting figures in 2005, the Recording Industry Association of Japan notes that the legal music downloading market has shrunk. Taking both PC-based and mobile-based downloads, the number of downloads made in the second quarter of this year was 111.6 million, compared to 114.3 million the quarter before.
– Mobile is still accounting for the overwhelming majority of downloads and revenues in Japan’s music download market, at 104.8 million downloads compared to 6.8 million downloads via PC; and generating 16 billion yen versus 1.3 billion yen. Ringback tones and full track downloads both saw increases — respectively 21.5 million from 19.2 million, and 25.6 million from 23.3 million. But the big-ticket item of ringtones fell by some 10 percent to 54.7 million, bringing down overall mobile revenue figures by 0.5 percent.
– Declines at larger music portals like Yahoo Music and iTunes contributed to the fall, notes IDG. It’s a far cry from a couple of years back, when Apple boasted that after it opened its iTunes Japan online store, it had 1 million downloads in just four days, a faster take-up than in any other country offering iTunes.
– Despite the decline in volumes, there’s an indication that higher-value downloads are at least keeping revenues going in the right direction. The total music download market reached a record high of 17.62 billion yen ($152 million), a slight increase on the 17.58 billion yen it made the quarter previously.
– The RIAJ compiles its numbers based on figures provided by 42 member companies. The release is in Japanese but there’s a useful translation of the important tables containing figures on Wireless Watch Japan.
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