Legal Downloads Triple in Q1-2/05

Yahoo: Yesterday, the IFPI announced that 180 million single tracks were downloaded legally in the first six months of the year, (compared to 57 million tracks in the first half of 2004 and 157 million for the whole of last year) which is yet another indication that legitimate download marketshare has definitely surpassed 2% in total global recorded music revenues (many are claiming it's now as high as 6%)...While broadband penetration was credited for most of the surge along with continued prosection and education - I'm not so sure those numbers aren't just the result of massive MP3 player growth (thanks to the iPod) and the fact that legal digital music sites have tripled in the last year - and most importantly - people wanting to get with it and "own" rather than "rent" their music...