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The full scope of North Korea's private internet has been revealed after the country accidentally gave people outside of the country brief access to it.

The government-controlled internet is a lot smaller than was initially believed, containing just 28 websites in total, including an insurance company, sports website and site containing culinary information and recipes, according to information posted to GitHub.

Previous reports had suggested the North Korean internet was significantly larger, with as many as 5,500 websites. But when access to the country's web was briefly available this week, the GitHub users found just 28 North Korean domains.

What North Korea's internet looks like

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North Korea's internet revealed to have just 28 websites

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The full scope of North Korea's private internet has been revealed after the country accidentally gave people outside of the country brief access to it. The government-controlled internet is a lot smaller than was initially believed, containing just 28 websites in total, including an insurance company, sports website and site containing culinary information and recipes, according to information posted to GitHub.

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Media In The Online Age - Music Industry

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Media In The Online Age Music Industry CD's, Records and live performances were the prime source of entertainment for consumers. History sheet music publishers dominated the music industry as they produced hand written forms of music notion. Record labels then dominated the industry, as artists signed with them as the only source of promoting their music and getting heard.

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Few industries understand the need to evolve more than music. From vinyl to Tidal, the tune has completely changed in the last few decades. In less than half a lifetime, we went from mind-numbingly slow dial-up to being tapped into the Internet constantly, across a variety of devices and mediums. This has brought about a groundswell of entrepreneurial explorers, keen to pioneer and plant their flag in the fertile and untamed digital music landscape. Sure, the methods may be different, but the soul is still there. So how do you promote music through digital marketing?
What is Music Marketing ?
Besides talent and production, marketing is the key component in turning an artist into a star. It amplifies your hard work and talent to millions of potential fans. Before the Internet Age, this would have just included DJs, radio stations, television and industry press. Today, it consists of social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and getting onto major digital music platforms like Tidal, iTunes, Soundcloud and Spotify.
Living In a Social Media World
According to Raffi Keuhnelian, CEO of MusicPromoToday, "Social media has allowed musical talents from around the world to become global superstars. Just think of Justin Bieber, Adele or The Weekend--they all 'made it' online. It also offers music fans the ability to interact and engage with their favourite musicians."

He continues, "Fans feel like they have a voice with social media and that they are being heard. Artists use it to communicate with their fans by keeping them in the know-how of the latest news and upcoming releases. Successful artists are those that excel with their digital marketing strategy and reap the rewards of their creative approach."

Social media marketing also offers a cost-effective solution for bands and their managers to build buzz. For all up-and-coming bands still playing concerts in mom's basement, this has been a real game-changer. With the potential to reach an audience of millions through a retweet by an influencer, artists can launch their career before it even starts.

Don't count out a more traditional promotional strategy like word-of-mouth out though--if anything, it's become even more important with the internet and social media. Think: when you like something, you share it with your friends. Before, this meant waiting to see them or picking up the phone. Now, everybody is a quick text, direct message or click of the "Share" button away.
Mobile Marketing is Key
Let's face it: everyone owns a mobile device. And they always have it on them. Chances are yours is less than five feet away from you at this moment, right? This offers a unique ability for music pioneers and bands to engage fans at times they may have previously been unreachable. When they are at work, they can check their mobile device and suddenly discover an artist or song they've never heard of before.

Before digital, they had to be listening to the right radio station at the right time to hear a new track. Nowadays, they can be online at any point during the day and find a new band that catches their eye--or ear, as the case may be.
Video Marketing
Video marketing has also emerged as one of the best tools the music industry has for digital marketing. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo allow bands to create visual content and post it for millions to see. This has helped launch many aspiring artists. Look at teenage star Avery, who has created a successful career almost entirely thanks to YouTube. Times have never been more exciting.
Conclusion
Digital marketing has undoubtedly changed the terrain of the music industry. The key is to not view it as an unfamiliar threat, but instead a huge opportunity waiting for pioneering artists and their teams. From social media to word of mouth to video market, new talents have never had so many tools --or competition-- in front of them. Those who will not only survive, but thrive in this new world of music are the ones who use the Internet to make themselves known to huge new audiences.

With the rise of Gen Z, the world's first true digital natives, younger generations are learning about older songs through social media and video sites, creating a new wave of fans for the music industry.

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How Digital Marketing Is Changing the Music Industry

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Few industries understand the need to evolve more than music. From vinyl to Tidal, the tune has completely changed in the last few decades. In less than half a lifetime, we went from mind-numbingly slow dial-up to being tapped into the Internet constantly, across a variety of devices and mediums. This has brought about a groundswell of entrepreneurial explorers, keen to pioneer and plant their flag in the fertile and untamed digital music landscape.

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NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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With wider access to computers and other devices that can go online, the potential for cyber bullying has grown. No longer are bullies confined to picking on others on the school playground. Today, many bullies are refraining from physical bullying, opting instead bullying by email, social media, instant messaging and other online modes of communication. Although cyber bullying doesn't have the same, obvious signs that physical bullying has, it can be just as damaging in the long term. Here, we are covering cyber bullying statistics, as well as some information that may be useful to you if your child, friend or colleague is a victim of cyber bullying.
What Is Cyber Bullying?

Cyber bullying is simply any form of bullying taking place online or by digital communication. This can include text messages, instant messengers, social media, email and other apps such as SnapChat.

Some forms of bullying are more unique to the online world, because it allows for different ways of interacting. These can include:

Flaming: This is an aggressive exchange between two or more people online.

Impersonation: Technology allows people to post or comment as others if they have gained access to another's account. This can be used to bully.

Cyber Stalking: Social media and messaging gives stalkers new opportunities to contact follow and harass their victims.

Outing: Direct access to large groups of people can make outing, sharing secrets and other personal information all the more hurtful.

Trolling: This involves trying to wind up others online with immature questions or mean comments.

Cyber bullying can be just as hurtful as bullying in real life, and can be more damaging to someone's reputation. Since it is less immediately obvious, it is even more critical to be informed about cyber bullying. Since the technology changes year-on-year we have gathered some information about the state of cyber bullying in 2014. Please read on to find out more.

Cyber Bullying Statistics

25 per cent of teenagers report that they have experienced repeated bullying by their cell phone, or on the Internet.

52 per cent of young people report being cyber bullied.

11 per cent of adolescents and teens report that embarrassing or damaging photographs have been taken of them without their knowledge or consent.

Of the young people who reported cyber bullying incidents against them, a third reported that their bullies used online threats.

10 per cent of all middle school and high school students have been on the receiving end of hate terms.

55 per cent of all teens that use social media have witnessed outright bullying online.

95 per cent of teens that witnessed bullying on social media report that others, like them, have ignored the behaviour.

More than half of young people surveyed say that they never confide in their parents when cyber bullying happens to them.

Only one out of every six parents of adolescents and teens are even aware of the scope and intensity of cyber bullying today.

More than 80 per cent of teens regularly use cell phones; a common medium for cyber bullying.

About half of young people have experienced some form of cyber bullying. Of them, almost 20 per cent experience cyber bullying regularly.

The most common types of cyber bullying tactics reported are mean, hurtful comments, as well as the spreading of rumours.

Cyber bullying affects all races.

Victims of cyber bullying are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem and to consider suicide.

Report From Counselling Service concerning Cyber Bullying Statistics

Childline, a free counselling service based in the United Kingdom, identified in their most recent annual report that cyber bullying concerns rose by a whopping 87 per cent in 2013 over the previous year. Depression and general unhappiness were cited as the main reasons for contacting the charity. Young people contacted the charity more online, by email or one-on-one chat sessions, than by telephone.

Cyber Bullying Statistics: What Can Be Done To Prevent Cyber Bullying?

The sad part about cyber bullying is that the people who love these teens and adolescents - including their friends, parents and teachers - often don't know what to do to help. Providing support to bullying victims is always encouraged and appropriate. Below, you'll find other ways to hopefully help deal with these vicious attacks.

Cyber Bullying Statistics: What Can Be Done To Prevent Cyber Bullying?

The sad part about cyber bullying is that the people who love these teens and adolescents - including their friends, parents and teachers - often don't know what to do to help. Providing support to bullying victims is always encouraged and appropriate. Below, you'll find other ways to hopefully help deal with these vicious attacks.

Talk to teens about cyber bullying, explain that it is wrong and can have serious consequences. You may want to have some specific rules with your teens regarding cyber bullying, such as banning sending mean texts or inappropriate behaviour online.

Encourage teens to report incidents of cyber bullying to an adult, but be careful to reassure victims that they will not be punished.

Reassure the bullying victim that they are not at fault for attacks against them.

Encourage adolescents and teens to save cyber bullying messages as proof. This is especially important if the incidents are eventually reported to the police, parents or school officials.

Since much of the cyber bullying attacks happen via cell phones, victims should start by changing their cell phone numbers and email addresses. You can also contact your cell phone provider to block the bully.

Encourage young people not to send information or photos by text or instant messaging that they wouldn't want shared publicly.
Please help us spread the word on Cyber Bullying Statistics with your friends or by social media. The best approach we have to raising awareness and combating cyber bullying is by fact-based, informed and sympathetic action. If you have any questions or would like to make a comment please join the conversation below, we'd love to hear from you.

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Cyber Bullying Statistics - NoBullying - Bullying & CyberBullying Resources

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With wider access to computers and other devices that can go online, the potential for cyber bullying has grown. No longer are bullies confined to picking on others on the school playground. Today, many bullies are refraining from physical bullying, opting instead bullying by email, social media, instant messaging and other online modes of communication.

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The internet and digital devices are changing our news consumption habits. Here are 12 trends to put the rapidly shifting digital news landscape into perspective:

1. More Americans get news online... 50% of the public now cites the internet as a main source for national and international news, still below television, but far above newspapers and radio. ( Report)

2. ...Especially younger Americans: 71% of those 18-29 cite the internet as a main news source, more than the percentage that cites television (55%). Among those 30-49, 63% say the internet is where they go to get most of their news, matching the percentage who say television is their top news source for the first time. Older Americans have been slower to embrace the internet as a main news source. ( Report)

6. Tablet users are more engaged: In 2012, 31% of tablet news users said that they spent more time with news since getting their device. Another 43% said that the device was adding to the amount of news they consume. ( Report) And 73% of tablet users said they read in-depth articles on their tablet. ( Report)

11. Young people get less news, except on mobile: While they are much lighter news consumers generally and have largely abandoned the print news product, young people get news on mobile devices to similar degrees as older users according to 2012 data. On tablets, daily news consumption rates are similar across all four age groups studied. On the smartphone, owners under 50 get news at higher rates than those over 50. ( Report)

Topics: News Media Trends

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The internet and digital devices are changing our news consumption habits. Here are 12 trends to put the rapidly shifting digital news landscape into perspective: 1. More Americans get news online... 50% of the public now cites the internet as a main source for national and international news, still below television, but far above newspapers and radio.

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There's been plenty of notable records released this year, but seemingly no amount of great music can fix the industry's declining album sales. and Nielsen Music (formerly Nielsen SoundScan) released some midyear 2016 sales data today, and so far, 2016 is the worst year for overall album sales since Nielsen started keeping track in 1991. Consumers bought 100.3 million album units - a number that accounts for digital downloads, CDs, and vinyl - in the first half of 2016, down 13.6 percent compared to the same time period in 2015.

Over the same six months, listeners streamed 208.9 billion songs (or 139.2 million album units, according to RIAA and Billboard rules), a 58.7 percent increase. Hidden in that number is a boom in music-only streaming: 113.6 billion audio streams, compared to 58.6 billion in 2015. Video streaming like YouTube and Vevo saw more modest growth: 95.3 billion streams, compared to 2015's 76.6 billion.

Among other unsurprising news in today's report is word that the CD continues to decline, moving just 40 million units in the first six months of 2016 (a decline of 11.6 percent compared to the same time period last year). Meanwhile, the vinyl collector's market is still growing, up 11.4 percent by the same metric, but remains far smaller in terms of actual records: 6.2 million copies sold in the first half of the year.

Percentage-wise, digital album sales are slipping even faster than CDs - they're down 18.4 percent to 43.8 million. The digital download, revolutionary when Apple introduced the iTunes Store in 2003, seems poised to join the CD in the format graveyard.

Only three albums have sold more than one million copies this year: Drake's , Beyoncé's , and Adele's . Of course, 25 was released in November 2015, but Adele has been savvier than most artists about encouraging fans to actually purchase her records: The album only became available on Spotify in June. Meanwhile, the late David Bowie's is the best-selling vinyl record of the year, moving just under 57,000 copies.

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2016, the Worst Year for Album Sales Since the Last One

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There's been plenty of notable records released this year, but seemingly no amount of great music can fix the industry's declining album sales. Billboard and Nielsen Music (formerly Nielsen SoundScan) released some midyear 2016 sales data today, and so far, 2016 is the worst year for overall album sales since Nielsen started keeping track in 1991.

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Sales of CDs in the US dropped by 31.5% in the first half of 2015, according to music industry figures.

Just 41 million CDs were bought between January and June, down from 56.8 million in the same period last year.

But the losses were largely offset by a growth in streaming revenues, which grew 23% to reach $1.03bn (£697m).

Streaming now accounts for one-third of the US music industry's income, which remains relatively flat, with total revenue down 0.5% to $3.17bn (£2.05bn).

Wholesale revenues - which reflects what distributors and record labels actually receive - rose 0.8% to $2.32bn (£1.5bn).

The vinyl resurgence continued apace, amid a surge in new independent record shops.

Sales of LPs grew by 52% in the first half of the year, raking in $221.8m (£143m) - roughly half as much as CD sales.

However the overall value of vinyl was still far smaller than CDs or digital, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

'Enormous transition'

RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman said that the figures showed "the story of a business undergoing an enormous transition."

He also warned that "intense demand and billions of streams does not always equal fair market rates or a fair playing field."

This year has seen increased competition for streaming services with the introduction of both Apple Music, Jay Z's launch of Tidal and Amazon's entry into the market in a bid to compete with the likes of Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, Deezer and Google Music.

However, the revenue from digital downloads is still worth more than streaming, totalling $1.3bn (£842,000) despite being down 4%.

Taylor Swift's 1989 was the biggest-selling album in the first half of 2015, shifting 1,328,000 copies (2,011,000 copies including streaming-equivalent sales).

Canadian hip-hop star Drake came second, with 965,000 fans buying a copy of his fourth album, If You're Reading This It's Too Late.

The top 10 also included British artists Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran, as well as the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.

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Sales of CDs in the US dropped by 31.5% in the first half of 2015, according to music industry figures. Just 41 million CDs were bought between January and June, down from 56.8 million in the same period last year. But the losses were largely offset by a growth in streaming revenues, which grew 23% to reach $1.03bn (£697m).

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Do you remember a simpler time when there were no computers with Internet service full of information? You actually had to leave the house and go to a library to check out one of those Encyclopedias. If you were lucky enough, and had the money, your parents might purchase a set of books from Encyclopaedia Britannica to enrich your learning experience.

Encyclopedias still exist, but as the Internet has taken over everything that we do, the need for them is gone. To that end, Encyclopaedia Britannica has announced that after 244 years of doing business it is going out of print, according to a report by Media Decoder.

To be completely honest, these print dinosaurs have been out of style since the Internet was born, which is about fifteen years now. I'm not quite sure what has taken the company so long to realize that it was losing money by continuing to print books, but either way, the time has come to say goodbye.

The company will continue to focus on its website, but that might be a lost cause already given that Wikipedia has become the go-to source for information, especially when you Google something that interests you.

Jorge Cauz, president of Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. had this to say about the end of an era:

It's a rite of passage in this new era. Some people will feel sad about it and nostalgic about it. But we have a better tool now. The Web site is continuously updated, it's much more expansive and it has multimedia.

The last set of books will feature an update for the year 2010. I will always remember the Encylopedia fondly, but will not miss how much they weigh or how quickly they're outdated. Still though, it's crazy to think that generations to come will never get to see one unless they visit a museum.

Damn I feel old.
Want to download all of Wikipedia to your iPhone or iPad? There's an app for that.
Read next: Game changer: This video game just raised a record of $3.3 million on Kickstarter

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The Internet Has Just Finally Killed The Encyclopedia

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Do you remember a simpler time when there were no computers with Internet service full of information? You actually had to leave the house and go to a library to check out one of those Encyclopedias. If you were lucky enough, and had the money, your parents might purchase a set of books from Encyclopaedia Britannica to enrich your learning experience.

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Americans are spending less time with their eyes glued to a television screen, but that doesn't actually mean they're watching less ... television. It's a classic example of semantics trumping reality: While TV viewership went down 3 percent last year, a new study suggests that people aren't trading in this time to be one with nature or engage in some other physically stimulating activity. Instead, they're watching Netflix.

As per a report from Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson, Netflix was responsible for around 50 percent of the overall drop-off in TV viewing time in the U.S. In fact, American Netflix subscribers are estimated to have streamed a stunning 29 billion hours of video in 2015, whereas the global Netflix community managed to binge on a total of 42.5 billion hours.

And this past year's data, Nathanson says, isn't an outlier. Rather, it represents a trend showing Netflix's (and other streaming services') increasing popularity. By 2020, the analyst says, streaming hours will account for 14 percent of all TV viewing. And while this is a burgeoning figure, he notes, it doesn't mean that Netflix will render the television set and major broadcast channels entirely obsolete.

"Currently, Netflix is a source of industry pain, but not necessarily a cause of industry death," he wrote in his study.

But television executives are certainly none too happy about this particular pain point. As Variety points out, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes compared Netflix to the Albanian army last year, and further noted that Time Warner was considering " delaying the SVOD [streaming video on demand] licensing window for some of its content as it evaluates the best monetization options in a fast-changing TV landscape."

This is interesting given that Time Warner is not, in fact, one of the companies suffering as a result of Netflix's growth. In fact, the total viewership of Time Warner, Scripps Networks Interactive, AMC Networks, and Discovery Communications actually went up in 2015. That was not the case for all networks - A&E saw a 15-percent drop in viewing hours, Viacom declined 13 percent, and both NBCUniversal and Disney were down by 5 percent.

That said, for households that are Netflix subscribers, TV viewership did indeed take a hit. Netflix subscribers watched CBS 42 percent less than non-subscribers, Fox took a similar 35-percent hit, ABC a 32-percent hit, and NBC a 27-percent hit.

Variety does point out one caveat: the analysis of television viewership does not include online and mobile viewing of TV networks, but whereas these numbers are adjusted for co-viewing, Netflix's data is taken per household. And as Variety reports, "according to Nathanson, that means Netflix per-person viewing is underrepresented relative to Nielsen Live+7; thus, the analyst assumes the two factors largely cancel each other out."

So sure, parents. Your kids (and you) may be watching less TV. But you might have gone out of the frying pan and into the fire with this one.

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Netflix is causing us to watch less TV, study reports

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Americans are spending less time with their eyes glued to a television screen, but that doesn't actually mean they're watching less ... television. It's a classic example of semantics trumping reality: While TV viewership went down 3 percent last year, a new study suggests that people aren't trading in this time to be one with nature or engage in some other physically stimulating activity.

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A year ago we reported that Facebook had rolled out its Reactions feature, which lets you use buttons for Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry for when a Like just doesn't cut it. Now that feature is coming to Messenger, too, and rolling out on iOS right now. You can add emoji to a message simply by holding it and selecting one. ( Learn why Facebook Reactions are important, and why a simple Dislike button would be such a bad idea.)

How to use Facebook Reactions

Facebook Reactions work in exactly the same way as the Like button used to, which is both good and bad. Also see: Best Facebook tips and tricks.

The good: They're simple to use. You tap on the Like button to access Reactions, and if you later change your mind you can tap on it again to recall your support. Facebook will show the three most popular Reactions underneath each post.

It's now much easier to work out what to do when you want to show support for a post but don't want to appear crass. For example, you're not really happy that your best friend's cat has died - are you? Now you can choose another Reaction (we recommend the Sad button).

The bad: If you show empathy with a lot of sad posts or express your anger at a lot of unhappy posts, you'll see more of that type of content in your News Feed in the same way that Facebook will show you more of the sort of posts you Like.

How to use Facebook Reactions on a laptop or PC

Facebook has already rolled out Reactions to the web, so you shouldn't need to do anything special before you can use it.

Open Facebook in your web browser and find a post you'd like to express some sort of sentiment with. Hold the mouse cursor over the Like button and six Reactions will pop up. Choose the one that best fits your reaction: Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry. Also see: How to stop Facebook automatically playing videos.

How to use Facebook Reactions on a phone or tablet

Facebook has also rolled out Reactions to Android and iOS, and if you aren't yet able to access the feature you should make sure you are using the latest version of the app - check whether an update is available at the App Store or Google Play.

If you are using the latest version and still can't see Reactions, try closing and reopening the Facebook app.

On an iPhone or iPad you can double-tap the Home button to bring up your open apps, then swipe the Facebook app up off the top of the screen to close it. Now relaunch the Facebook app from the Home screen.

On an Android phone or tablet, bring up your multitasking menu (which is achieved by pressing or long-pressing one of the three buttons under the screen - in the case of our Samsung Galaxy S6 you tap the button to the left of the Home button) and swipe the Facebook app off the side of the screen. Now relaunch Facebook in the usual way.

To add a Reaction to a Facebook post, again find one you want to express some sort of sentiment toward, then tap and hold the Like button. The same six Reactions will pop up, and you simply tap the one that suits. If you simply tap the Like button it acts the same as before, and you'll merely Like that post.
Follow Marie Black on Twitter.

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How to use Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry buttons on Facebook

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Facebook has rolled out its Reactions feature, which lets you use new buttons for Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry for when a Like just doesn't cut it. Here's how to use new Facebook Reactions - and how to get them if you don't see them.

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Ebook sales for the UK's five biggest publishers fell in 2015, according to a new report in the Bookseller, collectively declining 2.4%, to 47.9m units. It is the first drop in numbers of books sold in this medium for the "big five" since the digital age began.

The Bookseller magazine says that each of the five biggest general trade publishers in the UK - Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pan Macmillan and Simon & Schuster - saw their ebook sales fall in 2015. At Penguin Random House, the UK's largest trade publisher, ebook totals slipped by 0.4% in 2015, down from 16.17m to 16.1m. At Hachette, they were down 1.1% to 14.5m, while at HarperCollins, when sales from Harlequin Mills & Boon are excluded (the company was acquired halfway through 2014), ebook sales were down 4.7%. The slip at Pan Macmillan was 7.7%, and at Simon & Schuster it was 0.3%.

ebooks table

"For those who predicted the death of the physical book, and digital dominating the market by the end of this decade, the print and digital sales figures from the big five for 2015 might force a reassessment," wrote the Bookseller's features editor Tom Tivnan. "Sales have dropped. Or at the very least, we can without a shadow of a doubt say that ebook volume slid for the big five publishers for the first time since the digital age began."

Publishers Association chief executive Stephen Lotinga commented: "Ebooks are co-existing with print books, as opposed to taking over ... digital sales of fiction and non-fiction appear to be slowing as readers increasingly want to consume books in a variety of ways". But he said that "for many publishers 'digital' remains an important element of their business and we expect this year to see growth in digital across educational and professional publishing".

The Bookseller's editor Philip Jones attributed the decline to "a natural slowing down of growth and adoption rates" in digital, along with a slowdown in sales of Kindles. In the autumn, Waterstones said it would stop selling Kindles in most of its stores because it was "getting virtually no sales".

Waterstones chief executive, James Daunt, feels that "the advantages and disadvantages of digital reading are becoming better understood ... This is resulting in a partial return to physical book reading as ebook reading finds its natural level. In particular, this is favouring good publishing: with good books, there is a clear benefit to owning the real thing. A bookshelf of real books makes its digital imitator seem pale indeed."

Publishers' shift to agency pricing for ebooks - whereby they, rather than retailers, control ebooks' retail pricing - will also have slowed growth, said Jones. "They have increased prices for many of their ebooks, or at least taken them out of Amazon levels of discount. Publishers are more interested in managing a sales mix of print and ebooks than Amazon, and that could lead to a natural slowdown in growth of ebook sales for those publishers in agency pricing."

He also pointed to the "vast numbers" of self-published ebooks that have come onto the market in recent years: according to experts surveyed by the magazine last year, self-published ebooks account for anything between £58m and £175m.

"They are clearly taking sales away, at very low price levels, from traditional publishers' ebooks. There is no doubt that is happening - the question is how big a dent in the market those titles are making It is certain that [self-published titles] are taking market share from the bigger publishers, and that is no bad thing as the market develops, as a lot of self-published books are the most innovative out there."

Data on the whole of the digital market is not currently available, so the Bookseller has estimated that if the big five hold a similar market share in digital as they do in print (56%), there were 85.5m ebooks sold in Britain in 2015. Author Earnings, which uses a software programme to crawl Amazon's bestseller lists and collect data, paints a different picture of the UK market. In a November report, it claimed the big five account for 31% of all ebooks sold on Amazon.co.uk, while self-published authors have reached 26%.

Adding its own total to the number of print books sold in 2015, the Bookseller estimates that there were 276.2m print and digital books sold in 2015, 2.9% up on its 2014 estimate, with digital accounting for 30.9% of all volume sales, down from 32.7%.

But when value, rather than volume, is considered, a different picture emerges: on the estimate that ebooks sold for an average £4.35, the Bookseller calculates that digital books earned around £381.5m last year, giving a combined print and ebook total of £1.9bn, up 7.1% on the previous year. "2015 was a stonking year ... maybe one of the best ever," writes Tivnan.

Philip Jones said: "I think overall, the digital market has certainly gone up, if you include smaller publishers and self-published books and digital-only publishers But I don't think that changes the overall picture of the ebook marketplace, which has slowed down from 2012 to 2014, and which will, I think, continue to slow as readers migrate from dedicated e-ink reading devices to tablets and mobile phones."
Topics

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Ebook sales falling for the first time, finds new report

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Ebook sales for the UK's five biggest publishers fell in 2015, according to a new report in the Bookseller, collectively declining 2.4%, to 47.9m units. It is the first drop in numbers of books sold in this medium for the "big five" since the digital age began.