Streaming Makes Up 80 Percent of the Music Industry's Revenue (theverge.com) 32
Revenue made from streaming services in the United States grew by 26 percent in the first six months of the year, according to trade group Recording Industry Association of America, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. That makes for a revenue of $4.3 billion, according to research conducted by the group, which represents approximately 80 percent of the music industry's overall revenue. The Verge reports: Although this included both paid subscriptions and ad-supported streams, the report also found that paid subscriptions grew by 31 percent, accounting for 62 percent of the industry's total revenue. Spotify has more than 100 million subscribers, and Apple Music boasts 56 million paid subscribers. The record industry in the U.S. saw an 18 percent increase in revenue -- hitting $5.4 billion -- in the first six months of 2019. It's not just streaming that's helping the industry see a boost, though: physical media sales also jumped. Both vinyl and CDs saw increases in sales, growing 5 and 13 percent, respectively. CD sales made up roughly $485 million of the industry's revenue over the first six months of the year, and vinyl sales brought in an additional $224 million.
I supposed it was inevitable that the (Score:5, Interesting)
vampires would find the new witch's teet. Does this mean they can stop crying about "piracy" now?
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Nope. Crying about piracy has been very lucrative for the RIAA, so they aren't about to give up on it that easily.
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Take out the R (Score:3)
Steaming makes up at least 80 percent of the content responsible for the music industry's revenue.
That's why I only listen to classic rock and kpop. The classic rock I already have in my collection, and the kpop is available for free on youtube.
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Sometimes, I listen to the oldies [youtube.com], too.
where's Rick? (Score:2)
a youtube link in a conversation about (slightly) old-ish music?
you wasted a perfect opportunity for justified rick-rolling.
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I'll just assume you didn't actually watch the video and realize that it's the first song ever vocalized by a computer. It was a monumental step in computer history.
Otherwise, I'd need to ask you to hand over your geek card.
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I would presume anybody that clicked a youtube link from slashdot never had a geek card in the first place.
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Well, it isn't a bad song, I remember in the 80s they played it on the radio all the time and nobody even groaned or anything, they just sang along.
Without old music on youtube I'd have never learned how to do the dance from the song Surfin' Bird. Though most people don't even realize that the song is about a surfer nicknamed The Bird.
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Words, they're what's for dinner.
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... and the kpop is available for free on youtube.
They get paid for that, and it's still considered "streaming"
Poor representation (Score:5, Interesting)
Meanwhile, video game sales were $135 billion last year, and there is no mainstream attention. People who play video games are seen as counter-culture outcasts in popular conception.
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Because almost everyone engages in some form of music, but the same isn't true for games.
Re:Poor representation (Score:5, Insightful)
Meanwhile, video game sales were $135 billion last year, and there is no mainstream attention. People who play video games are seen as counter-culture outcasts in popular conception.
This is highly generational. I have the impression now that among the young the ones who don't play Minecraft and Fortnite are the weirdos. WoW classic is almost like the people who go to see their bands from 15+ years ago when they were young, like if you were 15-20 then and 30-35 now it's hardly counter culture. But the older you get, the more niche video games get though to be honest the TV generation got very little they should say about our time wasters. But I think we're all still struggling with the generation-crossing aspects, like in the game it doesn't matter if you're 14 or 40 but in the real world it'd be pretty weird to hang around non-family members young enough to be your kids.
Misleading categorization of revenue (Score:1)
This made me smile (Score:2, Interesting)
" CD sales made up roughly $485 million of the industry's revenue over the first six months of the year, and vinyl sales brought in an additional $224 million."
Am I the only one seeing vinyl sales sitting at 46% of CD sales and smiling? Ever since MP3 (1994) and FLAC a bit later CDs were only a physical conduit to a digital file, and having vinyl started to have meaning again... for actual sit-down listening.
How long before this figure is inverted? Vinyl will always have a market, niche as it may be. I h
CDs? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:CDs? (Score:5, Interesting)
So how do they classify DRM-free downloads of albums? Is that the same as CD sales, just without the expense of the physical media?
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It's still streamed to you, once, so should count as streaming. CD's LP's etc may never touch the internet.
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It is most certainly not "streamed" to me. They are files containing lossless encoded hi-bitrate FLAC studio masters. A CD is nothing more than a physical hunk of plastic containing "digital music files" encoded using a specific standard. Downloaded DRM-free music files are exactly the same thing -- they just are not shipped on plastic discs, and they are encoded using a different standard. I can freely convert these files to any format I wish and store and play them wherever and whenever I wish -- even
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Well I guess if they use snail mail to send them to you, then it's not streamed. My assumption is that anything shipped in digital form over the internet counts as streaming. You log into a site and stream that flac file to your system vs picking up a physical CD and carrying it home, manually rip it to a flac and enter the meta-data by hand, without even having an internet connection.
The question was how do the record companies catalog a flac, steaming or as a physical CD.
The Real Question (Score:5, Insightful)
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The independant artists I know make way more from physical merch and music sales than streaming.
"You can't download a shirt."
Vinyl is sold at a premium and may earn more than CD's, but CD's are still more than the trickle of money from putting their stuff on streaming "services." Streaming is seen as promotional, but sort of the way "exposure" is the same as "work hard for free."
If you want to support artists, contribute to crowd funding projects, buy their music directly from them, buy merch, and go to sho
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I am curious as to the best way to buy music directly from artists.
I used to think Bandcamp was the answer, but if a label controls an artist and puts up their Bandcamp page, that money goes through the label. Bandcamp takes their 15 percent or so, and then the label takes whatever they take, so that doesn't seem any different than any other distribution channel in terms of directly supporting artists. I felt mislead when I learned this, as their FAQ states that "80-85% of your money goes to the artist",
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For the average musician the annual income looks something like:
From the publisher:
- Record sales: $-5k (that's a negative number, those things cost money, first have to recover the cost before we start paying you out)
- Stream: $5
Together this is rounded up to 0
Other:
- Merchandise: $2k
- Live shows: $10k
- Burger flipping at Mcdonalds: $20k
So yeah, kind of a division by zero error there so no answer.
Download for purchase individual songs and albums (Score:3, Insightful)
Business gonna business and cut their own throat. (Score:1)