Music Industry Sees First Big Gains in 20 Years Thanks to Streaming Services

Thanks to subscription-based music streaming services, the music industry is seeing a significant growth for the first time in nearly two decades. According to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an industry trade group, the global music sales rose 3.2 percent last year, also surpassing those from all physical music formats. The important tipping point in 2015 saw digital services account for 45 percent of recorded music revenue. According to the report, Spotify, Apple Music and other music streaming services brought in about $2.9 billion in revenue. The findings are in line with Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s estimates from last month. IFPI also noted that music on free streaming services such as YouTube has also grown quickly, creating a panic among record labels and artists alike. Billboard elaborates that aspect: In criticizing ad-supported services, the IFPI joined a growing list of trade bodies and music company executives to criticize YouTube for paying royalties that are relatively low when considering its popularity. The report argues YouTube distorts its negotiations with labels by hiding behind the DMCA "safe harbor" rules that limit the liability of online intermediaries from the infringing actions of their users. The result, the IFPI argues, is YouTube can use an "act first, negotiate later" that "fundamentally distort[s] the negotiation process."

Comments

I'm no fan of the music labels

[Viol8]

But if youtube send us those damn ads we have to sit through until "skip" comes up, or worse the ones where you have to wait for the whole thing to finish, the least they can do is cough up the money to the labels or individual musicians if self published.

Divide and conquer

[Second_Derivative]

Now they'll make sure that their catalogs are spread evenly across five or six different streaming services and keep them all fighting against each other. They don't want a unified front of streaming providers pushing back and demanding a bigger slice of the pie.

The media industry learned its lesson back when Steve Jobs dunked on them with the negotiations for the iTunes Music Store. The fragmentation happened to Netflix, it will happen to Spotify and co.

Re:A suggestion

[AmiMoJo]

You didn't understand what I wrote, did you?

Read it again. Note how I'm talking about their efforts to get YouTube to pay more. If they force YouTube to pay more, YouTube won't be able to offer the music for free (ad supported). Web ads don't bring in much money. Certainly not as much as the subscriptions.

Note how I also mentioned that association with other media is what sells these days. So trying to shut down that association but being asshats with copyright and preventing use on the most popular platforms is stupid. We have already seen just how stupid they can be by splitting their catalogues between multiple streaming services. They are still trying hard to drive people away and towards piracy or ad-supported platforms where they get less money.

I'll even give you an example. A few years back my toilet was blocked. The usual methods didn't work so I googled. A YouTube video came up suggesting hot water and dishwasher tablets. Works a treat. The video used Queen's "We are the Champions" to celebrate the unblocking, and it reminded me of the song so I went and listened to it and the label and Queen got paid. Since then the video has been taken down on copyright grounds, so if I were searching today they would get nothing.

Just like MTV, just like Napster, just like iTunes and Amazon, just like Spotify they are trying their best to fail. The only reason they are making more money now is that they are at the upward part of the cycle where they come to accept the new technology, before the next thing comes along and they fight it for a few years before giving in and accepting a new revenue stream.