That’s right it’s been reported that around 95% of music downloads are illegal - An increase in legitimate music sales over the past year did not come close to offsetting the billions of dollars being lost to music piracy, with illegal downloads outnumbering the legal ones sold on-line by a factor of 20 to 1.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said record companies’ revenue from digital music sales rose 40 per cent to $US2.9 billion ($A3.33 billion) over the past year.

But the growth is still failing to cover losses from collapse of international CD sales, the music industry’s global trade body said.

The industry body said CD sales fell 11 per cent between 2005 and 2006, and were likely to drop further in 2007. Digital music revenue has so far failed to make up for the decline - and is also showing signs of slowing, the IFPI said.

But it said legal digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 per cent of the world’s music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music.

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