Streaming Rules
Subscription streaming services such as Spotify are saving the recorded music industry’s bacon, says the Recording Industry Association of America, and are now the biggest component of the American market.
Overall revenues rose nearly 1 percent for an estimated retail value of $7 billion, and about $5 billion wholesale value, according to the Wall Street Journal, the fifth straight year with an increase in wholesale value – despite declines in sales of CDs, downloads and other product.
Streaming now accounts for about 34 percent of recorded music revenues, up from 27 percent in 2014, according to the paper.
Subscription streaming revenues jumped 52 percent to $1.2 billion. The streaming boom got a boost last year from the introduction of Apple Music and Tidal services, and has well outpaced declines in sales of CDs and digital downloads, according to the report.
Revenues from online services like Pandora and satellite radio’s SiriuxSM also grew, though not by as much. SoundExchange, which collects digital performance royalties as an arm of the RIAA, paid out $802 million in 2015, up from $773 million a year prior, according to the Journal.
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