Will it be the "carrot and stick" or just "the stick" that revives flagging digital-music sales in Japan?
As in other major music markets, digital sales here — via PCs or mobile phones — have helped offset the slide in sales of physical product such as CDs. In 2011, sales of physical product (excluding music videos) in Japan amounted to ¥212 billion, down 6 percent from 2010, according to local labels body the Recording Industry of Japan (RIAJ). Digital sales totaled ¥72 billion, down 16 percent.
And in the January-March quarter, digital sales slumped 20 percent year-on-year to ¥15.4 billion. That comes at a time when digital sales are on the rise in other markets.
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