Once the scourge of the music industry, digital downloads are now officially ?the way forward? for the ?Big Four? record labels – EMI, SonyBMG, Universal and Warner Music, which together control over 70% of the world?s recorded music – now that they have numbers to justify it, anyway.

The monetization issue is tricky not least because at the end of the day music is just one content purchase option among many, says Marcel Fenez, Asia-Pacific leader of Entertainment & Media Practices at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

?Music is competing for consumer entertainment dollars from other sectors, and they are all growing much faster,? he says.

For example, video games will grow 13% CAGR in the next few years, driven by online and wireless sales, while pay TV content revenues will grow 10%. Sports revenues will grow 8%, and film 6%.

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