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“CALL me maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen, a Canadian vocalist, was the best-selling song last year. Is it maybe also time to call the bottom for the music industry? According to data released on February 26th by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, sales of recorded music grew in 2012 for the first time since 1999, albeit only by 0.3%, to $16.5 billion (see chart).
加拿大歌手Carly Rae Jepsen演绎的《来个电话，如果可以（CALL me maybe）》成为去年最畅销的歌曲。是不是也该往音乐行业的谷底打个电话了？国际唱片业协会（IFPI）周二（2月26日）公布的数据显示，2012年全球唱片销量额为165亿美元（见图表），尽管增幅仅有0.3%，但实现了1999年以来的首度增长。
The internet sank the music industry, but is now helping it to resurface. Digital sales rose 9% last year; a third of the music industry’s revenues now come through digital channels. Download stores represent roughly 70% of digital revenues. Popular “streaming” services, such as Spotify and Deezer, which pay a royalty each time a song is played, have also helped to rescue the business. Subscription services had 20m paying subscribers around the world in 2012, up 44% from a year earlier. Millions more use free advertising-supported versions.
互联网曾使音乐行业遭受了沉重的打击，但如今它又在帮助音乐行业重新崛起。去年，数字音乐的销售额增长了9%；现在音乐行业收入的三分之一都通过数字渠道实现，下载商店的收入约占数字音乐收入的70%。享受Spotify和Deezer等流行的“流式”服务时，每播放一首歌曲都需支付相应的版权费，这也是在挽救音乐行业。2012年，全球拥有2千万付费用户享受音乐订阅服务，这一数字同比增长44%。另外，还有数百万人在使用有赞助广告的免费版本。
The growth of smartphones has made it more attractive to own and stream music legally. Smartphones are the third most popular device on which to listen to music, after personal computers and hi-fi systems. Over 100 countries now host digital music services for legal downloading and streaming, compared with only 23 in January 2011.
智能手机的发展已经使合法拥有和下载音乐更具有吸引力。智能手机是继PC和HiFi之后第三大音乐播放设备。目前，提供合法的数字音乐下载和流媒体音乐服务的国家超过了100个，而2011年1月仅有23个。
Digital revenues may be rising, but physical sales still account for most of the music industry’s revenue—and they continue to fall almost everywhere (Japan and South Korea are exceptions).
数字音乐的收入虽然呈上升趋势，但实体音乐的销售额仍构成音乐行业收入的主要来源——几乎每个地方（日本和韩国除外）的实体音乐收入都在继续下降。
The ease of owning or streaming music may have helped to draw people away from piracy. But around a third of internet users continue to visit unlicensed sites. This may explain why revenues have stopped falling but have not yet grown by even a full percentage point. Still, it looks as though the music industry has (at last) found a new more buoyant rhythm.
下载音乐或欣赏流媒体音乐的轻松便捷可能也鼓励了人们远离盗版，但约三分之一的互联网用户还在继续访问未经授权的网站，也许这就是音乐行业收入虽停止下滑但增长仍不到一个百分点的原因。不过，音乐行业似乎（终于）看到了重新崛起的曙光。
BY 许勐
