Thank streaming: Global music sales jump 8.1 percent
Thank streaming: Global music sales jump 8.1 percent
2017 was the third consecutive year of music sales growth
after 15 years of decline, as the world's total music subscribers surged by
more than half.
Spotify is the world's biggest streaming music service by
users.
By APRIL 24, 2018 5:00 AM PDT
Thanks to streaming, the global music industry is
thriving.
Revenues to $17.3 billion, the International Federation
of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, said Tuesday. It was the third
consecutive year of growth following 15 years of decline and was driven by a
41.1 percent leap in revenue from streaming, according to the recording
industry's worldwide trade group.
It was also the highest rate of growth since 1919, almost
a century ago when popular movies were still silent.
For the first time, streaming was the single largest
revenue source for music globally, at a 38 percent share. Paid subscriptions --
the source of most of the revenue growth
-- jumped by 64 million new members, hitting 176 million total at the
end of 2017, an increase of more than half.
Meanwhile, digital downloads, typified by Apple's iTunes
store, dropped 20.5 percent.
Overall, the recorded music industry is still off its
peak, which came during the heyday of the CD. Total industry revenues for 2017
were 68.4 percent of the high-water mark in 1999.
The data emphasize the meteoric popularity of music
streaming, which has overtaken digital downloads as the music industry's main
business model in just a few years. It has also led to a larger cultural shift
in consumers' relationship with their music -- rather than buying music
outright, as we did in the era of CDs and digital downloads, we're increasingly
paying monthly fees for all-you-can-access tunes on services like Spotify or
Apple Music, or listening free by sitting through advertising on sites like
YouTube.
At first, that shift triggered backlash among some labels,
but the recording industry's resistance has morphed into an embrace of the
format as it fueled the best music sales in a decade.
The news comes ahead of a Spotify news event Tuesday,
when the company is expected to reveal a update to its free mobile-listening
options.
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