Interesting ... download sales declining .... poor old Apple.
Revenues for physical formats have increased for the first time since 2003 as figures released by the BPI, formerly the British Phonographic Industry, showed a 2.4 per cent rise for last year to £310.5 million. It is a dramatic recovery from a long decline that was steepest in 2012, when there was a drop of 22.7 per cent.
The BPI puts the recovery down to streaming services, whereby fans buy subscriptions to listen to music rather than buy their own copies. Before streaming came along it was a straight fight between physical formats and digital downloads, which seemed to be heading towards a decisive victory for iTunes and other download services.
However, the main selling point for downloads - the must-have-it-now impulse - was also true of streaming, which cannibalised download sales. As services such as Spotify took off, downloads went into decline, falling continuously from a peak in 2013. The attraction of CDs as a tangible product remained, so fans who want to own a copy of their favourite music have come back to the discs.
Download sales wilted from £282 million in 2013 to £113 million last year. Streaming generated £388.9 million for the music industry last year, the first time that streaming revenues have overtaken physical sales. The figure is 41 per cent higher than in 2016.
The growth in streaming means that revenues are growing faster than at any time since 1995, when Britpop was in its zenith. That was the year of Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, Pulp’s Different Class, Blur’s The Great Escape and Radiohead’s The Bends.
In 2017 revenues increased 11 per cent to £817 million with the help of established artists including Ed Sheeran, Little Mix and Sam Smith and breakthrough acts such as Rag ‘n’ Bone Man and Stormzy.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Comments
Will be listening to it on Apple Music mostly....
A better article would be: WOO! Look how the online world has devalued music and reduced the mainstream to a tedious lump.
And I notice Amazon have been offering a buy a CD get a download immediately on many of the albums for sale. So you can rip an MP3 file for your phone while you wait for the CD to arrive at no extra charge.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
Spotify pay very almosy nothing.
Spotify aren't alone in that though, are they? Some other services pay more per stream, some pay less, YouTube pay fuck all, but at least with Spotify you may get more streams in total and therefore a bit more money.
I mostly listen to music on Spotify nowadays, but if I really like something I will then buy the CD because I feel I owe it to the artist (although I'll probably never actually play the CD).
Now the industry then makes agreements to pay their artists... that as always is where the robbery goes on!
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.