Streaming boosts 16.5% rise in US recorded music revenues

[Becky]

Today's surprising news is that CD and vinyl music is now outselling digital music downloads in the US for the first time in seven years, and it is largely due to the increasing popularity of streaming. Overall, sales of physical products are still falling, but the decline in digital downloads was far bigger - hence why CDs and vinyl are now outselling downloads. Streaming has seen a massive increase. Music Week has been looking at the recent report from RIAA (Record Industry Association of America):

The streaming boom has powered America’s recorded music revenues for 2017, as the total rose by 16.5% to $8.7 billion, according to the latest figures from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Streaming platforms accounted for $5.7bn of that total, marking a 43% increase year-on-year.

James Donio, president, Music Biz, has welcomed the new results, noting: “It’s the first time in nearly two decades that revenue substantially increased two years in a row, and was driven by the continuing explosion of streaming services.”

Read more here.
Alternatively, here is the full report: 2017 RIAA Shipment & Revenue Statistics

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I wonder how these artist make money from all the YouTube streams because we can listen to it for free. Maybe they get a kickback from the Ad dollars.

 

[Becky]

As I understand it a lot of musicians share their music through Vevo - they pay a share of ad revenue to the artists. I'm sure they also try to keep on top of copy videos, so that the only viewable version is the official one. I bet there's a lot that slips through the net though!

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I bet there's a lot that slips through the net though!

Yea I've seen full movies on YouTube before, I guess they can't monitor the thousands of videos that get uploaded every day.

 

[Becky]

Yea I've seen full movies on YouTube before, I guess they can't monitor the thousands of videos that get uploaded every day.

Exactly. I don't think they last long, and they often make changes so that it can't be detected automatically (ie add a border to the video) but even if it's up for a short while I bet there's money to be made from popular videos.