Music research company Gartner has called on the music industry to stop selling CDs by Christmas 2009.
According to Gartner, the music industry is stopping further online retail progress by “propping up the CD business”.
Sales figures are still not in for 2008 but sales of CDs for the year are expected to have dropped dramatically in favour of purchases online.
Last year, online sales accounted for 23 per cent of all music bought, up from nine per cent in 2006.
Music downloads are considered cost effective and would free up billions of dollars to allow for better marketing and promotion of music via the internet.