The music industry is convincing more consumers to pay for downloading, helping the industry toward recovery globally, Daily Variety said Wednesday.

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The newspaper, reporting on new data from a record industry trade group, said services such as iTunes and Napster helped drive growth in sales of digital music.

The industry's Digital Music Report 2005 also said that Apple's iPod and the increasing popularity of downloading tracks to cell phones have contributed to increased digital sales.

The trade group -- known as IFPI -- reported that the number of legal music sites quadrupled to more than 230 in 2004. Consumers paid to download more than 200 million tracks -- a tenfold increase over 2003 figures,

"The biggest challenge for the digital music business has always been to make music easier to buy than to steal," said IFPI chairman/CEO John Kennedy. "That ambition is turning into reality."

According to Variety, industry analyst Jupiter estimates the digital music market grew to a value of $330 million last year -- and should double in value in 2005.

Still, the IFPI report said the industry needs to do more to promote legal downloading and fight Internet piracy.