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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.
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?
Corporations don't acknowledge debts, or feel gratitude. Any more than sharks or crocodiles do.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
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.
That explains all the 404 errors I get when I try to download FLAC albums on Mega. They self-deleted to spare me from listening.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
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.
I'm guessing you are so old you are starting go senile, because I can assure you 9 out of 10 tracks were always crap. Even when you were young. You just don't remember all the garbage because you didn't hear it that many times.
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.
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.
You left out the original MP3.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3.com