The income of the recorded music business in Germany increased by 1% in 2013 – the market’s first annual growth after five years of decline.
The small rise in income took the German market’s revenues to around €1.45 billion ($1.96bn) euro, according to German music association BVMI and market research company media control GfK.
Digital music revenues increased about 12%, while physical formats decreased by just 2%. CD and vinyl combined still make up around 75% of the German market’s annual revenues,
Big hits of the year included Wake Me Up by Avicii (pictured), which stayed at No.1 for 10 weeks.
The latest stats come from an at-a-glance trend report, with more in-depth numbers set to be revealed in March.
”The successful Holiday season and the big demand for physical records supported a positive development in the second half of the year,” said Dr. Florian Drücke, managing director of the BVMI.
“The strategies of the industry and the diversity of options for music listening have gone down well with music fans. Nevertheless, we are still at the beginning of a path with a lot of unknowns — whether it will be possible to have a sustained increase in the future depends not only on the efforts of the music companies and the music services, but also that of the illegal use of music on the internet.”Music Business Worldwide
