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Streaming Services Generated More Than 50% of All US Music Industry Revenue in 2016 (variety.com)

Posted by msmash on from the disruption dept.

Janko Roettgers, reporting for Variety: Streaming music services were for the first time ever responsible for more than 50 percent of all U.S. music industry revenue in 2016, according to new numbers released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Thursday. Paid and ad-supported streaming together generated 51 percent of music revenue last year, to be precise, bringing in a total of $3.9 billion. In 2015, streaming music was responsible for 34 percent of the music industry's annual revenue. Much of that increase can be attributed to a strong growth of paid subscriptions to services like Spotify and Apple Music. Revenue from paid subscription plans more than doubled in 2016, bringing in $2.5 billion, with an average of 22.6 million U.S. consumers subscribing to streaming services last year. The year before, subscription services had an average of 10.8 million paying subscribers.

6 of 34 comments (clear)

  1. Not enough! by Daemonik · · Score: 2

    Music Industry CEO's claim that it's still not enough money to bathe in, demand more DMCA takedowns and strong arming foreign governments to change their laws, imprison their citizens on industry whims.

  2. Artist cut by rijrunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Streaming is also one of the lowest percentages of revenue streams to reach the artist... The streaming company and any label take the vast majority of income.

    1. Re:Artist cut by rijrunner · · Score: 3, Informative

      Average per-stream payout: $0.004891

      http://www.digitalmusicnews.co...

  3. That's it? by Solandri · · Score: 3, Interesting

    according to new numbers released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Thursday. Paid and ad-supported streaming together generated 51 percent of music revenue last year, to be precise, bringing in a total of $3.9 billion.

    So the RIAA's U.S. revenue for all of 2016 is just $3.9 billion / 0.51 = $7.65 billion? That's it? We're mandating DRM, incorporating it into playback media devices and transport layers, forcing ISPs and web services like YouTube to spend untold $millions to go on witch hunts and filter through the 57% of DMCA takedown requests which are fake, threatening people with loss of their Internet connection, bankruptcy, and jail time. All for less than $25 per capita, and what amounts to roundoff error for Google, Apple, and Microsoft's annual revenue?

  4. Meanwhile CD sales plummet... by pubwvj · · Score: 2

    Meanwhile the music industry announces that CD sales have plummeted for the 17th straight year blaming the decreased sales on piracy.

    1. Re:Meanwhile CD sales plummet... by Proudrooster · · Score: 2

      I think this is because computers no longer come with CD players. If I can't rip a CD what good is it? Until CD readers make a comeback, CDs are doomed. I suspect the same type of shift is going on with BluRay sales as people stream videos from Netflix and Amazon and watch it NOW, instead of going through a bunch of dopey, unskippable menus, warnings, and previews. If I have a choice between physical media and streaming, I am streaming.