Streaming overtakes downloads in US music business
In the U.S. music market, revenue from streaming directly from the Internet exceeded revenue from song downloads for the first time in 2015.
Streaming revenues jumped by 29 percent to 2.4 billion dollars, as the industry association RIAA announced late on Tuesday. This resulted in a 34.3 percent share of total revenue. Downloads, which were recently the most important source of money in the US music industry, still accounted for 34 percent of revenues after a decline. So-called physical sound carriers such as CDs and vinyl still contributed 28.8 percent.
The growth of the streaming business in the USA was primarily due to the jump in subscription revenues by half to 1.22 billion dollars. Revenues from advertising in free streaming offerings were put at 385 million dollars - compared to 295 million in 2014. According to the RIAA, the music business in the USA grew by 0.9 percent to seven billion dollars last year - the falling sales of downloads and CDs largely offset the growth in streaming. The well-known providers in the music streaming business include Spotify, Apple Music, Napster, Google Music and Deezer. In Switzerland, the 35 or so music labels that are members of the IFPI Switzerland industry association generated total sales of 81.8 million Swiss francs last year. This was 3.5 percent less than in the previous year. Streaming services increased by 30 percent to 15.3 million Swiss francs. Sales in the download business fell by four percent to 24.6 million Swiss francs. (SDA)
