In recent years, there has been a lot of doomsaying in the music industry. It began back around 2006/2007, when numbers for Soundscan, which measures overall album sales, began a slow trend downward. By 2014, while industry insiders like Steve Albini were reassuring people about the future of the biz, a lack of platinum-selling albums that same year didn't exactly leave people feeling hopeful. Even into March 2016, people were convinced the industry was set to shutter; Stereogum released an essay saying that only big-name acts like Adele stood a chance of a lasting, successful career.
At the same time that people having been preparing for the worst, there's been an undercurrent of believers. Those people have seen the data and believe that the music industry might not just survive, but find a way to regain some of its former, multi-million dollar glory. In late April 2016, people in the "music is alive and well" camp got even more proof that things might be all right after all.
A most booming year
That bit of good news is courtesy of a brand new report from the specialist research firm Futuresource Consulting. Futuresource explained that 2015 was, based solely on year-to-year sales performance, the most successful of the 21st century. Spending across the globe on music - especially pay-per downloads and subscriptions - grew by nearly five percent, or just over $19 billion worldwide. David Sidebottom, a principal analyst at Futuresource, explained that Japan, the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. music markets all had noticeable growth, and that only a handful of countries experienced a noticeable decline.
Sales related to streaming in particular were especially healthy, as the revenue for subscriptions reached $5 billion in 2015. That's a growth of nearly 70 percent from year-to-year, an especially impactful achievement given the fact that a lot of streaming music worldwide is still free. What's also interesting is that while much of the world consumed music digitally, it's not the case in every country. Though digital music makes up nearly 85 percent of all music purchases in Sweden, Japan and Germany's markets are still dominated by a physical format, namely CDs.
So, what led to this boom period for the music industry? As Futuresource explained in its report, there are several factors for the market's recovery. That includes more streamlined applications for streaming consumption, people having more reliable smartphones and service, and a global consumer base with a growing love of wireless audio (which marries well with streaming music). In fact, wireless audio is set comprise almost the entirety of 2016's estimated $100 million audio hardware sales.
Because the music industry has experienced a rollercoaster ride since the early 2000s, it'd be easy to say that 2015 was just a fluke. However, Sidebottom explained that while markets have not reached anything near the pre-2000s peak, consumer spending for streaming is expected to grow 70 percent by 2020.
Is the end truly nigh?
CNET, meanwhile, bolstered the report's findings on 2016 and beyond with plenty more evidence of streaming's runaway success. In the early part of the year alone, there were three huge occurrences:
- The Beatles made their way on to several streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music.
- Huge albums from the likes of Beyonce and Kanye West helped to build the profile of the still-rising Tidal service.
- Apple Music, which many in the industry doubted during its inception, reached an astounding 13 million paid subscribers.
These developments proved that streaming is going to be a huge factor for the music industry as it continues to find new ways to monetize ever-changing technology. Does this mean that the doomsayers are wrong and the industry is secure? Perhaps not. But it does go to prove that music consumption in our time has only begun to evolve.