For the first time since the year 1999, the music industry - one of the first media businesses to suffer the blows of the digital revolution - reported on Tuesday that its worldwide sales had witnessed an increase in 2012, as per the figures shared by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Despite the fact that the global sales increase reported by the music industry in 2012 is very small - barely 0.3 percent - and the $16.5 billion revenue reported for the year was way less than the industry's peak revenue figure of $38 billion, the sales rise still is highly encouraging and noteworthy.

Terming the 2012 figures as an indication that the global music industry is "moving onto the road to recovery," the London-based federation's CEO Frances Moore said: "There's a palpable buzz in the air that I haven't felt for a long time."

Even though the declining sales of the music industry over the last decade or so apparently led to speculations that record companies were finding it difficult to cope with the lure of online piracy, 2012 surprisingly saw a significant increase in digital sales and other new revenue sources, to counterbalance the continuing plunge in CD sales.

Noting that "t the beginning of the digital revolution it was common to say that digital was killing music," Edgar Berger - CEO of Sony Music Entertainment international division - said that it now appears that "digital is saving music."