MUMBAI: While Bollywood musicians back in India may still be waiting to have a system in place on music royalties, an international non-profit organization PRS (Performing Rights Society) from the UK says that royalties from online sales were growing fast.

PRS, which ensures songwriters, composers and music publishers in the UK are paid whenever their music is played, performed or reproduced reported that that online revenues for its members have grown by 73 per cent. At the same time, UK revenues from CD's and DVD's were down by ?8.7m last year.

This is the first time that the annual growth in online revenues have been reported to be higher than the fall in revenues from CD or DVD sales. The figures PRS released suggested that the overall global revenues for its members went up from ?608.3m in 2008 to ?623m in 2009  

Though the figures suggest a positive trend in the music industry, PRS for Music chief executive Robert Ashcroft said it was too early to say whether this represented a turning point for the industry.

The organisation presently represents 65,000 UK songwriters, composers and music publishers.