Which, of course, is a rather unfair comparison, since DVDs, cassettes and vinyls are way more expensive than single downloads, but an indicator, perhaps, of the potential. Now to the news: Legal music downloads outsold some of their physical counterparts for the first time in January 2004, according to figures released today by trade organisation the British Phonographic Industry, reports The Register.

Last month, over 150,000 downloads were sold in the UK – measures as downloads from UK URLs to known UK IP addresses – with the launch of MyCokeMusic alone generating 50,000 sales in its first week online, outstripping vinyl, cassette and DVD sales, although CD singles still dominate the sales breakdown. Not too many, but a start…