It’s been revealed that around one in five consumers purchase their music solely as downloads.

The BPI  (British Phonographic Industry) revealed that 19.6% prefer to buy music online rather than having the physical copies.

Last year, approximately 27.7% of UK music fans purchased downloads over the internet in total, while many more streamed music or shared files illegally.

These new statistic have led the BPI to say that the digital music industry has now “gone mainstream”.

It follows news of the traditional music sector falling to financial crisis. Just earlier today, it was revealed that HMV will shut 66 stores nationwide, cutting up to 930 jobs.

iTunes also announced that they have sold their 25 billionth track.