Music streaming has saved the music industry
Music streaming services are finally offering some hope for the recorded music industry. According to a mid-year report from the Recording Industry Association of America, the estimated retail revenues from recorded music rose 17% in the first half of 2017, with revenue from music streaming sites accounting for 62% of the total market.
Revenues from streaming come from a variety of sites and types of services. As we can see in this chart from Statista, which is based on data from the RIAA, all three major types of streaming music have seen their revenue rise recently. But the growth in revenue from paid subscription services such as Spotify has far outstripped that from Pandora and other internet radio services, as well as that from ad-supported on-demand music sites such as YouTube and Vevo.
Music streaming appears to be spurring a long-awaited comeback for the music industry. The industry saw its total sales plummet from a high of $40 billion in 1999 to $14.5 billion in 2014, according to IFPI, a music-industry trade group. While revenues are still a fraction of their peak, they're at least now on an upward trajectory, with 2016, by some measures, marking the first up year for the industry in nearly 20 years.
