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Streaming Surpasses CD Sales At Warner Music (ft.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the sign-of-the-times dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The times are a changin'. "Warner Music Group has become the first major record company to report that streaming has become its largest source of revenue, surpassing sales of physical formats such as CDs and vinyl," reports Financial Times. Last year, Warner's streaming revenue surpassed its sales for downloads. It goes to show just how much of an impact streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are having on the music industry. Warner is the third-largest record company and has embraced streaming more quickly than the rest of the industry. "This rapid transformation is evidence of our ability to sign, develop and market artists that thrive in the streaming world," said Stephen Cooper, Warner's chief executive. The company reports that total recorded music revenue grew 10 percent to $610 million in the first three months of the year. Overall digital revenue increased 20 percent to $328 million, offsetting declines in physical formats like CDs.

63 comments

  1. You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rent your dwelling place.

    Rent your computer time in the cloud.

    Rent your media

    Rent your communications device.

    Rent your transportation unit..

    Rent everything.

    You own nothing.

    Slave.

    1. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot about the massive swarm drone army that the "citizen enforcement group" now operates, flying over every square mile, watching and listening to your every movement.

      You might be able to rent a lot of things in the future, but privacy and freedom won't be on any list to rent or buy.

    2. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Rent your dwelling place.

      Rent your computer time in the cloud.

      Rent your media

      Rent your communications device.

      Rent your transportation unit..

      Rent everything.

      You own nothing.

      Slave.

      Right, I used to buy stuff like Office of Photoshop and use it forever I'd skip several new released and upgrade when I was forced to. Now they want to charge you a subscription for them and that ends up costing me more than just buying a license did. I know you can drop the subscription when you don't need the software and then re-subscribe when you need it again but when I need these programs I generally need them **NOW** and not in quarter of an hour when I'm done with the activation process. I like having programs available instantly when I need them and I don't like being sucked dry by subscription services.

    3. Re:You will own nothing by dinfinity · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In order to preserve anything, you must continuously renew and repair it.

      Rip to FLAC. Automate offsite backups (you should be doing this anyway). Ensure error correction with PAR files and/or use ZFS.

      Problem solved..

    4. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Multi-terabyte hard drives are cheap. Fuck streaming. If I can't save it locally, I don't want it.

    5. Re:You will own nothing by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Multi-terabyte hard drives are cheap. Fuck streaming. If I can't save it locally, I don't want it.

      True... why would I let Wall Street investment banks and the undead corpses of the old record labels leech money out of my wallet with streaming services and on top of that pay for the bandwidth that eats up when I can flip them a bird by having local copies.

    6. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1. Everyone dies.
      2. You can't take it with you.

    7. Re:You will own nothing by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      None of my old CDs work anymore.

      What did you do with them? Use them as coasters? Play frisbee with them? I have disks dating back to at least 1986 that still play fine. One suffered disk rot and likely won't rip anymore (took quite a long time and a few attempts to fully rip a quality rip years ago), and a couple that have scratches when loaned but still play.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    8. Re:You will own nothing by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      besides, streaming limits you to whatever "they" want you to hear. I likely want to hear something else.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    9. Re:You will own nothing by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      No locked down content will be yours forever. The medium it is tied to will eventually lose its ability to retain it.

      Content is preserved by copying it. Want proof? Ponder what content created millennia ago survived to our times. Aside from texts chiseled into stone tables and buried before anyone could turn them to rubble, the only texts that survived are those that have been copied and multiplied countless times.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:You will own nothing by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Tell that to the asshats who think it's ok that copyright expires when their grandchildren have grandchildren and they themselves have been reduced to dust ages ago.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    11. Re:You will own nothing by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      Piracy is freedom.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    12. Re:You will own nothing by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 3, Informative

      None of my old CDs work anymore.

      A few years ago I ripped all ~700 CDs in our household, many dating back to the 1980s. Although a few of them ripped rather slowly, I don't think that there was a single unreadable disc in the whole collection.

      But maybe I'm just incredibly lucky.

    13. Re:You will own nothing by radish · · Score: 1

      Explain to me why renting makes me a "slave". Why is ownership the be all and end all?

      Renting gives me flexibility. Renting prevents me from being burdened with possessions I no longer want (which may or may not be worth anything on the secondary market). Renting ensures I can easily switch to a different model or version of something at little or no cost. Renting lets other people take care of maintenance and depreciation.

      There are plenty of things I choose to own, either because it makes financial sense, or because the item is important enough to my life that I want to ensure I always have access to it. But there's plenty of things where ownership doesn't make sense (for me). That doesn't make me a slave.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    14. Re:You will own nothing by Whorelander · · Score: 1

      None of your CDs? Really? I have about 100 CDs, many from the eighties and the ones I didn't scratch up to death in a crappy CD player still work -- and some of those scratched discs are reparable. My wife has over 600 CDs -- many going back further than mine -- and she dumped the bulk of them on her Mac the other year with minor issues.

      Are you some kind of subscription shill spreading hyperbole? How do you benefit from trying to discourage others from owning content?

    15. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're lying to you. They don't think copyright should expire at all, they're just playing ball with the Supreme Court on semantics since unending copyright is technically not allowed.

      But yeah, I know you know this.

    16. Re:You will own nothing by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I didn't say that they want it that way.

      I only said that they think it's ok. And for the record, I disagree. As would any sane person when they think about it. Imagine a bricklayer could charge rent for the house he built, and not only him but his children and grandchildren could do so, too, even though he never owned neither land nor bricks, all he did was actually assemble them.

      Would you say that he should be allowed to do that? Or would you tell him to go to hell for merely suggesting something like this?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    17. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, "they" have no way of constantly tracking what you are listening to, if played locally.
      (assuming your o/s and software don't provide this "feature")

    18. Re:You will own nothing by tepples · · Score: 1

      First, renting allows a landlord to evict you for reasons other than failure to pay rent. Second, renting doesn't allow you to become the landlord.

    19. Re:You will own nothing by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

      Your title says it all. In the end ALL of us will own nothing. :(

    20. Re:You will own nothing by radish · · Score: 1

      Firstly, who was talking about real estate? Not me, and not (exclusively) the OP. As it happens I own my house, but renting makes more sense for some people. And I wouldn't classify them as slaves - which was the point of my post.

      But to your points:

      renting allows a landlord to evict you for reasons other than failure to pay rent

      I own my house. There are still ways in which I may lose the right to live in it. The developed world is full of social contracts and obligations. If you're not cool with that, leave the city and go find somewhere out of everyone's way. I doubt you'll be bothered.

      renting doesn't allow you to become the landlord

      It certainly doesn't prevent you from doing so. You do realize most people who currently own houses started off renting? You know, while they saved up a down payment? I actually knew someone a few years back who lived in a small rented apartment he got a good deal on, and used the money he saved to buy (and rent out) 3 other apartments.

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    21. Re:You will own nothing by steveha · · Score: 1

      All of my CDs, including the ones I bought over three decades ago, still work.

      If you are having trouble, I suggest buying a new optical drive for your computer. Then use good ripping software with error detection/recovery. On Windows you can use EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and on Linux you can use anything based on the cdparanoia library. I simply use Sound Juicer and it works great.

      Rip to FLAC, and you can always convert to Vorbis or AAC or MP3 later.

      Optical drives fail. I expect to replace them every five years of more often. Fortunately OEM bare drives of decent quality are inexpensive.

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    22. Re:You will own nothing by antdude · · Score: 1

      Also, maybe need multiple CD drives and use Exact Audio Copy (EAC). Unless the CDs are physically in bad shape.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    23. Re:You will own nothing by tepples · · Score: 1

      First, renting allows a landlord to evict you for reasons other than failure to pay rent.

      Firstly, who was talking about real estate? Not me

      Nor I. I was making a more general analogy for termination of a service even though your subscription is paid up. For example, several PlaysForSure music stores closed their doors and shut down their DRM authorization servers.

    24. Re:You will own nothing by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Like the Dead Sea scrolls? Sure, they were actually copies, but had they been originals, we'd still have them ~2000 years later.

    25. Re:You will own nothing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually it's the opposite. Now I'm no longer a slave to my possessions. I'm free to drop everything and move on. Besides, you never own anything truly anyway. Don't pay your property tax and see how fast they take away your "owned" house. Don't renew your license plates or registration and see how quickly you can no longer drive the car you owned. What good is a computer without paying for internet access that you don't own?

  2. Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Even with Apple iTunes, even though you own it, you don't.

    You're tied to their proprietary products and codecs. Movies and TV shows are further locked by their DRM.

    And now they have that music subscription disaster, they make it almost impossible to buy music from their devices.

    You can't preview a lot of songs anymore - just trying to preview brings you into the stream crap.

    iTunes on the PC is going away, just like Quicktime.

    iTunes on the Mac is a horrific mess.

    Tim Cook needs to be fired, he's worse than that sugar water guy.

    1. Re:Apple by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 4, Informative

      You're tied to their proprietary products and codecs.

      If we're talking about music, it's not an "Apple proprietary codec" at all, it's AAC.

      Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates.

      AAC has been standardized by ISO and IEC, as part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 specifications. Part of the AAC known as High Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) which is part of MPEG-4 Audio is also adopted into digital radio standards like DAB+ and Digital Radio Mondiale, as well as mobile television standards DVB-H and ATSC-M/H.

      If you have a device that cannot play AAC audio files in 2016, it's time to upgrade. Even an old Nintendo DSi from SEVEN YEARS AGO can play these files.

      Apart from that, I do agree with most of what you said. If Apple continues on their current path, they're doomed. And I say that as a Mac/iPod/iPhone user.

    2. Re:Apple by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      If you think that Apple is the olny ones doing this, pull your head out of the sand.

      All of the content companies are doing this and forcing companies like apple to do it.

      Why do you think the ZUNE killed the most innovatinve features and turned into a steaming turd by release? The record companies forced it.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    3. Re:Apple by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Also agreed, as long as we're talking about media files.

  3. Said differently... by popo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "Warner Music Group becomes the first major music company to see physical media sales plunge to levels beneath streaming"

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
    1. Re:Said differently... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I was just pondering that. Ok, albeit from a different angle.

      I mean, who's still buying CDs? Last I bought must have been a decade or two ago. Closer to two, actually. Do kids these days even own a CD player anymore? I was under the impression that music sales today are in online music store downloads, not CD sales.

      In other words, I'd like to see this compared to online music sales. I have a hunch that CD sales and streaming combined is dwarfed by them, i.e. that they BOTH are insignificant.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Said differently... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still buy CDs, but it's hard to pin down why. For some reason I don't like the idea of buying a file (or the temporary rights to a file) regarding music, despite doing so with software and services like Steam for years. And it's always the same process: Buy the CD. Rip the songs to the network. Image and burn a copy for the car (old habit after having a few dozen albums stolen).

      I've never had any of my network drives fail yet, so I have no real reason to keep the discs as backups, and for home music we're all digital. Everything's ripped, and aside from pulling out a disc to image for a replacement burn, they just sit in a box in the closet.

  4. rapid transformation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah.... rapid.

    1. Re:rapid transformation by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Dinosaurs are not known for their speed...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:rapid transformation by just+another+AC · · Score: 1

      "Compsognathus was roughly the size of a turkey, but with a top speed of 64 km/h" (40 miles an hour for you backwards people)

      Seems like speed to me. :)

      PS Cue the "I'm a dinosaur you insensitive clod"

  5. surprised it took so long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I sold my 400+ CD collection in ~2001 and haven't looked back.

    1. Re:surprised it took so long by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 2

      I sold my 400+ CD collection in ~2001 and haven't looked back.

      I ripped my CD collection and stored it in the cellar. Eventually I'll probably throw it away since it's probably not worth enough money to pay for the gasoline I would burn driving to the nearest flea market and who wants CD's these day anyway. Show a CD to somebody under twenty and they look at you as if you just asked them to prepare their own food by skinning a deer with a flint hand axe and roasting the raw meat over a fire in the back yard instead of just eating the food that magically appears in the fridge every day. Having said that I wonder how long it will take before one has to pirate streaming services to get one's own no-strings-attached offline copies because all of the musicians are locked up in 'streaming only' contracts and are getting fucked over even worse by the streaming services than they were with the record labels? Hearing indie musicians talk their music seems to have become a promotional tool they use to sell vinyl records and T-shirts and tote bags and occasionally to generate a windfall of real money from live performances. Nobody except Wall Street banks and the old record labels who own the streaming services is making tons money off of streaming.

    2. Re:surprised it took so long by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      I rip all my discs, and still occasionally, when the artist actually puts together a complete disc, buy one. Why? Because the quality is far better than any streaming service. Oh, and *owning* my music is far better than an ongoing payment system leaching money from your wallet every month.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    3. Re:surprised it took so long by Lumpy · · Score: 1

      not hard at all to snag from streaming. the problem is all the streaming is low grade dog food quality audio. It's the other way they are making sure you cant even exploit the analog hole. Give everyone lossy crap audio that sounds good on their bluetooth headphones and not anywhere else.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  6. No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess I'll be reading slashdot a _lot_ less now. Bye guys!

    1. Re:No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You pretend to be one of us by reading /. yet you know not of privoxy or pi-hole?

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out; have fun with snapchat and facebook; don't trip over your selfie stick.

    2. Re:No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      It's not like that checkbox was working anyway.

      Hell, for weeks now I don't even see my posts appear when I click on "submit". They do post but they don't display on my end, I need to reload the damn page. And there's the "Working" status at the bottom that never goes away either...

    3. Re:No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      Just get an ad blocker. Its what I do. The checkbox never really worked for me.

    4. Re:No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You don't know how an adblocker works?

      Good riddance, what were you doing here in the first place?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:No more Ad Removal Checkbox? by Neuronwelder · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you, but I have gone to sites that have intelligent software that detects your ad blocker, and does not download the page.

  7. What's a CD? by mrthoughtful · · Score: 1

    What's a CD?

    Am I going to have to change my sig?

    --
    This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
    1. Re:What's a CD? by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      What's a CD?

      Its a thing that looks like a BluRay disc, you can put it in your BluRay player and after a long wait, hear some music. But for some reason there is no picture.

    2. Re:What's a CD? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      The picture is printed on top of the CD, but there's always a hole in the middle for some reason.

    3. Re:What's a CD? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Had to google it myself. According to this (warning, only click with a good adblocker if you don't want to get eye cancer) it has something to do with soaps and beauty products.

      News for nerds, my ass!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:What's a CD? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      So ... it's kinda like a woman or something?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    5. Re:What's a CD? by Tapewolf · · Score: 1

      What's a CD?

      Am I going to have to change my sig?

      It's a way to legally get music at full quality without the lossy compression you get in streams or MP3s. You also get a booklet with the words to the songs and neat artwork free as part of the bundle. It doesn't need an internet connection to work, can't be remotely deleted and it's easy to make your own if you're in a band.

    6. Re:What's a CD? by rcharbon · · Score: 1

      My vinyl is worth a buttload 'o bucks now, and my CDs will be someday.

  8. They still sell CD's ? by PsyMan · · Score: 0

    I wasn't aware they were still made, havent seen an old plastic media player in years, I suppose the elderly might still have an old CD player around to play their "Rock and Roll" or " 70's - 80's classics. Next you will be telling me that some people still watch movies from DVD's :P

  9. When will the movie industry wake up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When is the movie industry going to wake up to the sense that the music industry has and make movies available like this without DRM?

  10. Paying For Radio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You morons have been played by the record companies. They have shifted you from buying and owning physical product to paying for radio and owning nothing at all.

    They are pissing themselves with laughter as you throw money at them and proclaim "old" people to be luddites for not being streaming hipsters.

    1. Re: Paying For Radio by Kjella · · Score: 1

      The value is an illusion, I could download 1000 MP3s that'd cost 99 cents but I couldn't sell it for ten bucks. Okay maybe you'd get a bit of cash for original CDs/DVDs/BluRays, but only a small fraction of what you paid. Practically I just consider the entertainment value to me and consider the asset value ~$0. Which means I'm only interested in owning it if it's a good deal, if I'd never see the movie again I don't care if it's just a stream. And most things are only worth watching once. Many songs are a summer hit and fade away. I get bored by games. As long as I got value for my money forever ever is not really that big a deal.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  11. See? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These assholes still manage to make money with their shitmusic and "Lord Alge Dave Pensado" noise pollution, despite all their claims to the contrary in the years before. They will always find a way to extract money from you and the artists, whether you want it or not.

  12. MP3, AAC, AVC, and HEVC have a proprietor by tepples · · Score: 1

    If we're talking about music, it's not an "Apple proprietary codec" at all, it's AAC.

    MP3, AAC, AVC, and HEVC are proprietary in that they have a proprietor, or patent holder, that requires distributors of encoder software to sign a royalty-bearing patent license. Vorbis, Opus, VP8, and VP9 are non-proprietary in the sense that they are documented and royalty-free.

    1. Re:MP3, AAC, AVC, and HEVC have a proprietor by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Still, it's not "Apple's codec" at all, which was my point.

  13. Apple's long history with MPEG-4 tech by tepples · · Score: 1

    True, Apple doesn't own MPEG-4. Other AAC decoders can play any musical recording purchased from iTunes Store since Apple phased out FairPlay DRM 2009. But Apple is an MPEG-4 fanboy for a couple reasons. It's part of the patent pool because the MPEG-4 container is QuickTime, and since version 5 back in 2001, QuickTime has included "Sorenson Video 3" (SVQ3) based on an early draft of what became AVC. And in a sense, the implementation of AAC in QuickTime and iTunes is an "Apple proprietary codec" because the encoder and decoder are proprietary software whose copyright is owned by Apple Inc., even though encoded files are playable elsewhere. Perhaps by calling Apple stuff "proprietary", people are just expressing their bitterness that OS X and iOS ship without support for royalty-free containers, such as Ogg or Matroska, or royalty-free codecs, such as Vorbis, Opus, VP8, or VP9.