Japan’s mobile music downloads hit $633.7m in 2007, leave online sales far behind

Digital music sales grew 41% up in Japan during 2007, according to recent numbers released by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). Overall, about 465 million music units were sold, accounting for 75.487bn Japanese yen (approximately $703 million).

The quite interesting part is that mobile music downloads grabbed more than 93% of total music downloads or 90% of digital music sales (and sideloading is not counted as a mobile category). The most growing sub-category inside the mobile music downloads was the single track downloads, which grew by 99% since last year and accounted for $320 million or 50.5% of total mobile music sales. The ringback tune downloads also enjoyed a boost in popularity in 2007, increasing by 90%. The RIAJ numbers underline one more time the significance of mobile phone culture in Japan and its difference from other markets.

Source: RIAJ (Japanese)

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