The global recorded music industry grew $1.1 billion in 2016 to reach $16.1 billion—the largest growth its seen in over 15 years.
That number’s up 7% on 2015, according to MiDIA research.
Streaming revenue reached $5.4bn last year, growing 57% year-on-year and up from $3.5bn in 2015.
Subscribers to streaming services grew by 38.8bn, with Spotify accounting for 43% of the 106.3m worldwide subscribers.
Midia predicts that number will increase by 40.3m by the end of 2017.
“The recorded music industry changed gear in 2016 and revenue looks set to be on an upward trajectory over the next few years. However, successive quarterly growth is not guaranteed.”
mark mulligan, midia
Discussing the numbers, MiDIA’s Mark Mulligan said: “The recorded music industry changed gear in 2016 and revenue looks set to be on an upward trajectory over the next few years.
“However, successive quarterly growth is not guaranteed. Streaming will have to work extra hard to offset the impact of continued legacy format declines as the 18% download revenue decline in 2016 illustrates.
“Thus, the midterm outlook is as much about legacy format transition as it is streaming growth.
“If streaming can outrun tumbling download and CD revenues, then good times are indeed here.”
As previously reported, the three major labels collectively generated $11bn of gross revenue last year.
Universal takes the biggest marketshare with 28.9%, or $4.6bn, which is up 2.4% on 2015.
Sony Music has the highest gain, up 13% on 2015 and taking a 22.4% share ($3.6bn), while Warner was up 11% to $2.8bn (17.4%).
The independent sector earned $5.1bn – up 6%.
A note of caution: the indpendent numbers reflect share according to distribution rather than ownership of copyright.
Watch out for WIN’s forthcoming 2017 indie market share report for a clearer picture of the indie sector’s true global contribution.
Mulligan tracked both record label and publisher financial releases throughout 2016, in addition to conducting meticulous research into the global independent label sector for WIN (the Worldwide Independent Network).
This, combined with reports from country trade bodies and PROs (plus additional market sizing work on the publishing sector) has resulted in a unique presentation of where revenue flows in today’s global business.
(Please note: To ensure as representative a picture as possible, all local currency data has been converted into US dollars at the currency conversion rates for the respective quarters. This removes the distortion effect that occurs when data historical data is retrospectively converted at today’s conversion rates.)Music Business Worldwide
