Streaming now makes a significantly bigger contribution to the recorded music industry in Sweden than CDs or downloads, according to new information released by the IFPI.
The Swedish recorded music market grew again in 2013, up 5% in revenue terms to 991.2m SEK (£92.9m). Streaming income jumped by 30.3% to generate 705.9 million SEK (£66.5m) in the year – representing 71.2% of the total revenue generated by recorded music.
Streaming managed to offest declines in all of Sweden’s other major music purchase categories in 2013. Download sales declined 22.6%, to 44.1m SEK (£4.13m): down to represent just 4.4% of the total market.
Revenue from CD album sales dropped 30% in the year to 229.5m SEK (£21.5m), while unit sales dropped to 5.8m (-31.3%). CD albums accounted for just 23% of total revenues.
“Three straight years of sales growth [mean the] industry’s revenue has now risen by total 27% in the past five years,” said Louis Werner, CEO of IFPI Sweden.
“Despite this turnover of the industry is now only 60% of [Sweden’s] peak year of 2000. If we choose to focus on the ‘new’ industry which has grown up with streaming, however, the figures are very positive and places like Sweden are world leaders in terms of the growth and use of streaming services.”
The niche CD single market grew 13.3% to 990,000 SEK (£92,789), while vinyl sales grew 22.2%, but only accounted for 1.4% of total revenue.Music Business Worldwide
