Slashdot Mirror
Streaming Accounts For 75 Percent of Music Industry Revenue In the US (engadget.com)
Mallory Locklear reporting via Engadget: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has released music industry revenue statistics for the first half of 2018 in the U.S., and on average, revenue growth has slowed. While overall revenue was up 10 percent compared to the same time last year, clocking in at $4.6 billion, that rate is only around half of the increase observed between the first halves of 2016 and 2017. Streaming revenue growth slowed as well, though it was still up 28 percent compared to last year. Notably, streaming accounted for the vast majority of revenue so far this year, with 75 percent of overall revenue coming from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal.
The numbers also show that more people continue to join paid subscription services, with subscription rates growing by about one million per month. But while streaming revenue is still on an upward trend, the news isn't so good for digital downloads and CD sales. Digital downloads have only made up 12 percent of overall revenue so far this year, down from 19 percent last year, and CD sales saw a whopping 41 percent drop in revenue. To compare, during the same time last year, CD sales were only down three percent from the year before. Vinyl revenue, however, is up 13 percent.
The numbers also show that more people continue to join paid subscription services, with subscription rates growing by about one million per month. But while streaming revenue is still on an upward trend, the news isn't so good for digital downloads and CD sales. Digital downloads have only made up 12 percent of overall revenue so far this year, down from 19 percent last year, and CD sales saw a whopping 41 percent drop in revenue. To compare, during the same time last year, CD sales were only down three percent from the year before. Vinyl revenue, however, is up 13 percent.
... the music industry fought streaming tooth and nail before apple forced them to like it.
They do owe a rather big debt to napster, looks like.
By a CD, and archive it on a playback device of some sort.
Why pay and pay and pay hundreds of dollars for a single song?
Streaming is convenient and flexible, and 9 out of 10 songs produced today aren't worth the space on a HD to be archived for longer than it takes to listen to them once.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Nothing too contemporary but I enjoy foreign music and early
rock classics and do listen to them often. Sounds like you're
saying the modern auto-tuned garbage is garbage and I agree.
CAP === 'earmarks'
...my 600+ CD collection. If there's nothing in YOUR taste that you'd not listen to more than once, you must listen to the absolute worst music (on purpose) around.
Everything is about subscriber based content or rental. Its also why so many artists quickly fade away if their albums don't produce multiple hits. Because living off singles distributed through streaming doesn't pay. Definitely some question as to whether streaming hurt or helped the music artist.
I live in the Middle East, where I am beyond the reach of European radio stations and solve the problem with Streamtuner over the internet. For my car, I record the whole playlist of a handful of stations using Streamripper (part of Streamtuner) and then play from a USB stick.
The selection of CD's around my area is very limited. If that is similar to many other regions, then I would not be surprised that CD sales were down.
I read TFA and the report, including footnotes. I prefer to buy music direct from the artist, but it's not clear whether bandcamp and similar ad-free and corporates-free distributions are included.
It'd be nice to understand if the industry is moving away from lossy formats, too.
If you build it the will " pay "
my vague history
CD to WAV - you paid you converted enjoyed on everything
Then
From Wav to Mp3
Retaliation - Mp3 DRM - pay to use on approved device and watermarked
Then the original online storage of your Verified CD purchased
Retaliation sued to oblivion
Then Napster User Mp3 to user Mp3 ( music lover user pays 0$)
Then Kazaa Mp3 searchable or index to user ( user pays 0$ )
Retaliation - Sued to oblivion
Apple DRM - Sony DRM - Realplayer DRM Ect... Just to have a legitimate paid copy
Then internet Radio by Genre - Style ect...
Again Problematic for " Clear Channel Communications "
They Sued
Apple made you pay DRM and All was good
???
Free on demand song streaming and playlist creation and exchange for all
on multiple device and offline possibilities accounts for 75%
Feel free to fill the blanks it's early
For me listened liked went to the show
You've got National Public Radio and Ovaltine commercials. What else do you need?
CDs take too much room. Especially wasteful are those miserable, easily broken jewel cases. Even without that, I'd rather have a flash drive than a stack of audio CDs. And I'd prefer a denser format, such as FLAC.
CDs are only a little better than vinyl when it comes to toughness. A scratch can ruin a CD, much the same as a vinyl record. A particularly annoying scratch was inflicted by the sharp corner of a DVD burner tray. I had just ripped the video, and when I reached up (the computer was on a high shelf) and took the disc out it brushed against the corner of the tray which for reasons of cheapness was very sharp-- you know, like the sharp edge on a new piece of paper that is so good at giving a paper cut. Gouged a huge scratch across the disc. I got out a file and removed that sharp corner, but it was of course too late to save that disc.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Why are we not just saying "downloads"? Is there a specific segment of "digital downloads" as opposed to another type?
They're now well on their way to ensuring that you keep paying for the music you like from the time you're old enough to have a credit card to the time you're dead. Congratulations, lemmings.
So if i listen to the local radio station that is part of iheart is that streaming or radio play. If I listen to the same station via an app is that streaming or radio play?
Or if I just rip a video stream off youtube so I can play what I want when I want is that streaming?
Recorded music isn't as important as it used to be.
People used to assign a monetary and emotional value to a CD or LP. You could sell them on for a large percentage of what you paid for them. Because of the scarcity of physical media, the only way to listen to your favorite songs whenever you wanted was to buy a physical disc.
Now you can fire up Youtube or another streaming service and listen to pretty much anything, whenever you want. It's convenient, but somehow its not as much fun. You can't show off your music collection to your friends.
I would buy ROM cards with uncompressed DRM free music files and some artwork but for now I have to buy CDs (approx. 100-150€/y).
Unlike watching the same TV show over and over, listening to the same set of songs over and over is really pleasurable. I can't tell you why that is but it is and is true for most people.
Your comment which I think wasn't a jest, really got me wondering if people now just think of music as ambiance rather than actual listening or if it's like some zeightgeist trivia contest where one has to be able to say to freinds they have beard the latest songs.
Maybe it's become like the way we consume news always wanting the headline dopamine hit so times a day rather than scrutinizing the sunday times over a coffee on the porch.
Maybe I'm just out of date on what music is for now. If you want an example of things I've listened to many times in the last year three of those would be the Hamilton Soundtrack (holy moly!), went back and rediscovered green day and the Who for some reason I can't fathom but it just felt like good drive the car on a sunny day music. I also got into Dawn Penn and the rocksteady era stuff for a while.
For the same reason I like loading up my ipod with a set of songs on a playlist of about 200 then playing it many times till I've hear each song enough to notice the fine details. then I'll load another 200. Having all my songs on tap simultaneously would defeat that.
Interestingly to me, until you posted that it hadn't occurred to me what I was doing with that 200 song habit. I just fell into it because that's what the technology allowed and I never changed as ipods got more capacity. It was really just an extension of having 20 CDs or 20 vinyl disks on my desk at any given time with the rest over on the shelf and so not on tap.
Is it because music isn't visual that its pleasurable to do this compared to a TV show? I don't know, Some people like to watch Dances over and over. I do notice that the great dance musicals of Gene Kelly, Astair, Cid Cherise, and so on are the only really old movies that I am happy to rewatch periodically. And that's visual.
Is it because music and dance rely less on the dialogues meaning than on the rhythm and harmony? It's a good question.
ANyow thanks for the thought provoking question.
I'm hoping that you were making it in jest. Or maybe what you meant is that modern music isn't self sustaining and just relys on novelty tricks that get old fast. For me, modern music is house/rap and I didn't think there was much there-there until I heard hamilton. Now that it's more accessible to me, I have started to notice more nuance and artistry in some modern musicians that I felt before.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
CDs were nice because you could load up 5 in the changer and have a thematically consistent set of music in which you didn't need to program or make choices about what songs to play for a few hours.
I suppose that's what these channels based on themes are trying to replicate. I've just never found these satisfying. They tend to either hard to manage (pandora) or play stuff with too wide a catalog in which I never hear the same song again. Or if it's too narrow than I get bored of the channel and have to re-invent a new one as opposed to go get 5 other CDs I know I like.
Since I tend to buy CDs at shows in bars, it's not like I'm not getting new music. It just is music I know I like rather than an algorithm thinks I might.
Replying to you and the person above, I think there are ways to listen to music that streaming just doesn't satisfy for some folks. I buy cds, burn them, and transfer it all to my phone (used to be an MP3 player). Most often, when listening, I just press shuffle over the entire collection. In fact I don't really like the shuffle algorithm on the player app I have, it doesn't "mix things up" enough. And I don't want repeats. Sometimes I run through all my songs in alphabetical order by title, and that is actually pretty random.
I listen in my car, and maybe a little at work, and this way of listening can last me months without repeating a song. If I'm at home, we listen to the radio or pick a specific album for a particular reason.
None of these methods fits well with streaming, really.
And I'm old enough to actually want to own the music on a physical medium, so it doesn't disappear from my account when the service shuts down.
Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
>"Most often, when listening, I just press shuffle over the entire collection."
Actually, that is the only way I listen to music. Car, phone, work, Sena, bathroom player, whatever. I have them all on "random" across the 5K songs. Sure, it will play something I am not in the mood for at times, and I just "tilt" it with the cue button.
The players don't talk to each other, of course, but each keeps its own randomized list so it will not play the same song again until it either wraps around (which would take forever.... almost 300 hours or something).
Occasionally I want to listen to something specific, in those cases I will just hit the computer, find the song on the drive, and play it manually. But that is too much work any other time.
Unlike watching the same TV show over and over, listening to the same set of songs over and over is really pleasurable.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor- ld.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor-ld.
Around the world, around the wor -ld....
[repeat 10 hours]
thank you this article for giving a lot of inspiration also visit my website at http://www.eraqiuqiu.com if you want to know more about
Remember the golden age of internet music? The early BitTorrent era...
When I was a kid my family was poor. No money to squander on wildly overpriced luxuries like CDs. So I grew up without music. Indeed, at that time in my hometown, music knowledge was the exclusive privilege of a handful of rich kids who could afford to buy hundreds & hundreds of albums.
Then, for a few brief beautiful years when I was in school, FREEDOM broke out. Suddenly all the music in the whole world was available to share, even for us poor kids. A world of possibilities opened up - people started enjoying culture that formerly had been forbidden to us by our class reality.
Then the evil empire struck back. They attacked with million dollar lawyers, destroying the noble developers of sharing software. They attacked sharing users with Sandvine, bots, viruses, and every technological dirty trick in the book. A dishonorable cause fighting with dishonorable tactics.
And so the culture monopolists defeated sharing. FREEDOM was crushed, leaving only scattered pockets of resistance - and for the masses, a longing memory of better days. The level mass culture declined. Once again the rich enjoyed culture while the poor were left with the dregs.
Oh my brothers, remember! Remember sharing. Remember access to culture for everyone. Remember FREEDOM! Remember, and resist cultural imperialism wherever you can.
... and this disgrace will go away on its own.
at least the Gondry video is cool.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.