Streaming Accounts For Most Of The Music Industry’s Revenue

Chitanis - Oct 03, 2019

80% of the profit in the music industry in the first half of 2019 was made of streaming services such as Apple Music or Spotify.

The music industry is definitely on the rise. RIAA should thank streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify. There was a steady increase in the adoption, which made up most of the profits in the first half of this year. Artists, who are the real music creators and performers, in spite of their numbers of breaking records, are not receiving many benefits.

Spotify’s streaming payment will be divided unequally among right holders

After losing more than 65% of its annual revenue in the 2000s, the music industry has luckily avoided a complete collapse. Whereas, artists are certainly making their money honestly via streaming services. For every stream, Spotify pays approximately between 6 and 8 tenths of a cent. After that, this gracious sum is unequally divided among several rights holders like track’s producers, record labels, and last but not least, with the smallest piece, artists. As a result, for the artists who actually create and perform the music, a much smaller profit margin via streaming music than either digital downloads or physical sales.

Thanks to the pure streamed tracks’ volume, the biggest acts in the world are able to bring in an incredible amount of money. Some artists are even catering songwriting to have more streams netted. However, artists and bands that are outside the Top 40 circle must tour to preserve stable cash flow. Artists and fans would argue a lot since plenty of tours might be not healthy and stifle new musical ideas. How can artists get the incentive to either write or record if their music sales are extremely slim?

The artists’ benefits issues would still remain in the future

In addition, the increasing trend of shrinking CD sales and streaming is not likely to be good news for different record stores. A physical media inventory is what physical stores are relying on. The amount of these shops has been declined whilst Best Buy and other big-box shops have no longer carried CDs altogether. The fortune is that vinyl sales have been steady in the last decade. Streaming music platforms may contribute to the success of the format.

The music industry keeps shifting away from physical media since there are more and more consumers using streaming services. The industry is carrying on adjusting to a streaming-dominated world while artists’ profit issues still remain contentious concerns.