Those purchases increased 180%. Online sales, which were led by Apple's iTunes, were driven by a la carte downloads. Those a la carte purchases accounted for 86% of global online sales.

Digital music sales are also the dominant format for singles. Digital music sales of singles now account for three quarters of total singles sales. In 2004, the percentage of singles sales that were digital was only 45%. The shift toward digital music sales is being reflected in drops of physical format revenues. In 2005, revenues related to physical formats fell 6.7%. CD album revenue was down 6%, and DVD music video revenue was down 4.3%.

The music industry continues to make a shift toward being predominantly comprised of digital music sales. Nowhere can that better be seen than in the sale of singles. For the most part, people just don't go to a record store anymore to purchase a single song. They merely get it online or through their mobile device.