Japanese digital music sales drop 23%, but don’t blame streaming services

The Recording Industry Association of Japan’s annual report of digital music showed a 23% decrease in digital revenue in 2013 from 2012, despite the lack of major streaming services in the country.

The drop in revenue can, rather, be attributed to the rise of smartphones, which are effectively killing the sale of ringtones – once a big revenue-raiser for the Japanese recording industry.

Ringtone sales dropped a staggering 51% from 2012, with mobile single track sales down 56% and mobile music videos down 62%.

As Billboard points out, the drop in mobile singles sales isn’t as dire as it would seem from the mere percentages: single sales from smartphones are categorised as digital downloads, rather than mobile, which accounts for some of this decline. Digital singles sales increased from 70 million to 91 million, an increase of 31%. Likewise, digital album purchased leapt from 4 million to 6 million (44%).

Physical sales also dropped, with revenue falling from 310.8 billion yen (US$3.05b) to  270.4 billion yen (US$2.6b).