Digital accounts for 50% of global music sales in 2016, new report finds

  • Published
    Wed, Apr 26, 2017, 14:15
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  • Worldwide income from streaming has seen a year-on-year increase of 60.4%, according to the IFPI document.
  • Digital accounts for 50% of global music sales in 2016, new report finds image
  • A surge in streaming means that music bought digitally now accounts for half of the industry's annual global revenue, a new report finds. The International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents labels and the recorded music industry worldwide, said that global music sales grew 5.9% in 2016. A 60.4% rise in streaming revenue helped offset declines in downloads (20.5%) and physical formats (7.6%). Total digital revenues have grown 17.7%. Streaming services in emerging markets such as China, India and Mexico have helped the increase. At the end of 2016, 112 million users consumed music this way. The report also highlights a longstanding concern over how much money artists make from the streaming model. The IFPI acknowledges that the "value gap"—the disparity in the benefits that streaming gives users and artists—should be narrowed or closed as the industry works towards "sustainable growth." YouTube is compared unfavourably with other streaming services such as Spotify. On average, Spotify pays $20 to record companies per user, whereas YouTube pays less than $1. The report signals a change in fortune for the recorded music industry, which had, until 2015, suffered a 40% decline in revenues over a 15-year period. Frances Moore, the IFPI's chief executive, has called for a "fair digital marketplace" to help address artists' concerns. "The industry's growth follows years of investment and innovation by music companies in an effort to drive a robust and dynamic digital music market," she said. "Music's potential is limitless, but for this growth to become sustainable—for investment in artists to be maintained and for the market to continue to evolve and develop—more must be done to safeguard the value of music and to reward creativity."
RA