In the year 2008 Germans downloaded songs and music albums to the value of 80 million Euros from the internet. This corresponds to an increase by 34% as compared to the year 2007. In view of this development the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) announced that for the year 2009 turnover is forecast to be even higher than predicted in autumn 2008. However, BITKOM did not come up with any detailed figures, but said that for 2009 growth would be similarly strong as in 2008. The latest prediction by BITKOM is based on a survey by GfK.
According to this survey, in the year 2008 both turnover as well as the number of downloads increased: 40 million times Germans downloaded a song or an album from the internet which was a plus by 17% in comparison with the year 2007.
Men accounted for 62% of downloads and women for 38% following 36% in the year 2007. The share of buyers older than 30 years of age also increased by 2 percent in the year 2008 and rose to 53%. Therefore, it can be said that music downloads is not only a phenomenon of the young generation any more.
The average price for a single song currently stands at 1.10 Euros. Quite often the price depends on the usage rights bought. Files which can be copied without limit are in general more expensive than those songs the copying of which is limited by number or by the kind of devices on which these can be played. 