As many predicted, music streaming services have finally taken over the music market. For the first time in history, Universal Music Group (UMG) reported that streaming music revenue overtook physical music sales (Ingham, 2017). As you can see here by this graph:
As Ingham (2017) goes on to say, revenues from companies such as Spotify and Apple Music increased by 55.5%, roughly a jump from $1.06bn in 2015 to $1.64bn in 2016! That’s very impressive. On the other end, this means that physical music sales fell 13.1%, from $1.56bn in 2015 to $1.36bn in 2016. My theory is that this gap between streaming and physical sales is only going to grow larger. Streaming music’s lead is only going to get stronger, and in my opinion, this will also happen at a very rapid rate. The percentage increase year to year could be as much as 8% or higher. Technology is becoming more and more a huge part of human life, and there is no stopping it.
The best news of all is that the music industry is alive and well. UMG also reported that their total revenues rose 3.1%, or by $176m to put that more into your perspective (Ingham, 2017).
Concluding here, although some industry leaders may be afraid of this change, others are not. They foresaw the future of the music industry and are ready to embrace it. I know this newly found information is going to lead to more digital-focused business models, not only for UMG but also for all record companies both major and independent.
References
Ingham, T. (2017, February 23). Universal posts record revenues for 2016 - as streaming overtakes physical sales. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/universal-posts-record-revenues-for-2016-as-streaming-overtakes-physical-sales/
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