Disney Cashes in on Crashing Music Industry
Walt Disney Music Group’s Damon Whiteside, senior vice president of marketing of Walt Disney Records, has overseen a 60 percent rise in music sales from 2006 to 2007, CNET News reports, all because of the tween and young-teen music craze led by Disney star Miley Cyrus.
This occurred as overall music industry sales were down 17 percent in the same period because of digital downloads and pirated music online, according to the report. “It’s thanks to the tween and younger teens that the music business is staying alive,” Whiteside said at the YPulse 2008 National Mashup, a two-day conference about teens and technology.
Disney Online is currently picking up 30 million uniques per month, mostly in the teen and tween sectors. For music, “the virtual side of the business is growing fast,” even if it’s currently just 5% of revenue (with the other 95% being physical albums). “Digital album sales were up 52 percent last year; and digital tracks were up 122 percent,” Whiteside said in the article.
The report also said that mobile sales are also growing fast—”a market that didn’t exist for Disney even a year ago.” Disney estimates “40 percent of tweens own cell phones; and more than half of those kids use the phone to buy music, ring tons, and other content. The company’s ring tone sales were up 722 percent last year, thanks to the tween market,” the report said.
