Legal music downloads tripled

...in the first half of this year, over the same period in 2004, according to the London-based International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI, the umbrella for the Recording Industry Association of America and other such organizations). That's 180 million legal tunes downloaded, up from 57 million the year before, the Associated Press reports. The reason the IFPI gives? Broadband - the rapidly increasing number of people accessing the Net with high-speed connections. Meanwhile, file-sharing's down. The IFPI said there was "just a 3 percent increase in illegal file-sharing to 900 million in July, from 870 million at the start of the year." The IFPI also reports that there are now more than 300 digital sites available worldwide, "three times the number a year ago, and 2.2 million people now subscribe to digital services, compared to 1.5 million in January." See also "File-sharing realities for families."