MUMBAI: Global Digital music business has recorded an eight percent increase in revenues to $5.2bn (?3.3bn) representing one third of all sales, according to the IFPI report.

The demand for volumes of digital singles and albums have increased by 11 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. The number of consumers subscribed to online music services have also surged by 65 percent to 13.4 million.

The report also highlights the global expansion in digital market to 58 countries from 23 countries at the start of 2011,  due to the major digital music services such as iTunes, Spotify and Deezer.

The illegal downloading streaming and file-sharing still remains as the major threat, but the anti-piracy action in some countries like France have helped in declining the piracy level.

The introduction of the new Hadopi graduated response law in France has seen peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy levels decline by 26 per cent, with around two million P2P users stopping the activity since warning notices were first issued in October 2010 according to IFPI/Nielsen. The similar anti piracy law were imposed in other countries like Europe, New Zealand, Spain, Belgium, Italy and will be followed in US by 2012.

Commenting on the report, IFPI CEO Frances Moore said, "As we enter 2012, there are good reasons for optimism in the world of digital music. Legal services with expanding audiences have reached across the globe and consumer choice has been revolutionized. Meanwhile momentum is building in the fight against piracy as governments and a growing circle of intermediaries engage with our industry. We need legislation from governments with coordinated measures that deal with piracy effectively and in all its forms. We also need more cooperation from online intermediaries such as search engines and advertisers to support the legal digital music business."