Global 2008 music sales: here comes the pain again

As reported by Billboard, the beloved IFPI has released music sales figures for 2008, summarized below. For reference, here are some previous posts on the IFPI digital music report, US sales and UK sales.

Global sales:

• Total sales: 18.4 billion dollars, -8.3%
• Physical sales: 13.83 billion dollars, -15.4%
  
• Digital sales: 3.78 billion dollars, +24.1% (20% of total sales)

Europe:

• Total sales: 7.31 billion dollars, -6.3%
• Physical sales: 5.81 billion dollars, -11.3%
• Digital sales: 0.75 billion dollars, +36.1% (10% of total sales)

US:

• Total sales: 4.98 billion dollars, -18.6%
• Physical sales: 3.14 billion dollars, -31.2%
  
• Digital sales: 1.78 billion dollars, +16.5% (35% of total sales)
  

Asia:

• Total sales: 4.77 billion dollars, +1%
• Physical sales: 3.6 billion dollars, -4.9%
• Digital sales: 1.06 billion dollars, +26.1% (22% of total sales)

Latin America:

• Total sales: 518.6 million dollars, -4.7%
• Physical sales: 430.3 million dollars, -10.3%
• Digital sales: 62.6 million dollars, +46.6% (12% of total sales)

Physical sales in the US have dropped 1.5 billion dollars. My, my... Cash-strapped, aren't we? Well, here's an idea: according to a new study, 86% of P2P users would pay between $6 and $17 a month for legal, DRM-free, unlimited downloads (not streaming).

Helllllooo ! Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?