Record companies made more than USD 1.1bn on legal digital music downloads last year - three times what they received in 2004. At that time they made USD 380m, According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), record companies made more than USD 1.1billion on legal digital music downloads last year -- that is three times what they received in 2004. Sales were split between mobile phone ring tones, which consisted of 40 percent of the total, and online music downloading services such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (iTMS), which took the other 60 percent.

IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said: "Two years ago, few could have predicted the extraordinary developments we are seeing in the digital music business today. And there will be further significant growth in 2006 as the digital music market continues to take shape. Already in the UK and Germany—two of the biggest digital markets worldwide—legal buyers from sites like iTunes, Musicload and MSN actually exceed illegal file-swappers. We expect this trend to spread as new and pioneering legal music distribution channels open up to consumers.

IFPI said some 420 million individual songs were downloaded via the internet legally in 2005. Worldwide, there are now more than 335 legal download sites -- up from 50 two years ago, the organisation said.