The evolution of technology came with a price as we turned into the 21st century. Music industries suffered from illegal music downloading programs and other sites encouraging music piracy. However, for the first time in over a decade, the industry is showing signs of bouncing back. Read on for more details.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that $16.5 billion was earned last year resulting in an increase of .03%. While the percentage may appear to be a small number, it is nice to see that the industry did not suffer a deficit compared to years prior. Programs Spotify and Rdio have become extremely popular bringing in a significant chunk of the profit in digital downloads.

The NPD Group also offered that there has been a decline in file sharing. The percentage of Internet users who downloaded music using a P2P device has gone down almost 10% between 2006 and 2012. This is all good, especially for RIAA as they recently announced their dissatisfaction with Google. The search engine site apparently has yet to take any measures preventing Google users from finding the main sites that offer free music downloading — something they promised quite a few years ago.

One small step is all it takes for the industry to bounce back; hopefully this tiny statistic elevates the profits of our beloved musicians and artists.