Back in the day, customers would purchase music by buying entire albums. Then Apple came along with iTunes and suddenly it shifted from buying entire albums, to giving customers the option of paying for individual songs. Then music streaming entered the picture, where customers could pay a flat fee every year and listen to as much music as they’d like.However with every change, the industry has been slow to adapt, usually over the fear that they’d lose money. The same resistance was met with streaming, but it seems that the industry’s fears might have been unfounded. According to the latest report from the RIAA obtained by Bloomberg, the music industry’s revenue is actually getting a boost from streaming.
The report claims that streaming revenue, as far as the US market is concerned, grew by 57% to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2016, and it also accounted for almost half of the industry’s sales. According to Zach Katz, the head of U.S. operations at BMG Rights Management GmbH, “It feels like the market is slowly recovering after years of being in crisis and shrinking. It’s absolutely a step in the right direction.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of streaming’s benefits. Earlier this year Warner Music revealed that streaming was their biggest source of revenue. There are also other benefits, such as reducing piracy thanks to a cheaper option to listen to music legally. As it stands, Spotify is still the current leader in the streaming market and is currently boasting 40 million paid subscribers.
Filed in . Read more about Apple Music, Music, Pandora, Spotify and Tidal.