June 24, 2006
By Frank Green
Sales of digital music downloads may be showing the first signs of leveling off, as two new reports indicate week-to-week sales are stagnating – and sometimes declining – this year.
SEAN M. HAFFEY / Union-Tribune
John Garcia, a criminal justice major at San Diego State University, listens to music on his iPod at the SDSU trolley station. Slowing sales of downloads would be bad news for the $12 billion music industry.
“The hyper-growth period is gone,� said Marc Freedman, digital media analyst at the Diffusion Group in Plano, Texas. “Like any new offering, there is a period of fast growth, but then you reach penetration of the market.� Though the average number of digital downloads sold in the United States more than doubled in the first 16 weeks of 2006 compared with the same time last year, sales thus far in the second quarter are trending down from the previous quarter, according to Diffusion.
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Online music sales move out of fast lane; popularity still high 
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