Towards a music streaming economy – an international market analysis

The music business year 2018 was shaped by the ongoing streaming boom. In April, Spotify has been listed as a stock market company and shortly thereafter the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported a 41.1 percent increase of global music streaming revenue to US $6.6bn for 2017. Music streaming has become the most relevant revenue source with a market share of 38 percent in the phonographic industry (compared to physical sales 30 percent, downloads 16 percent, performing rights 14 percent and synchronisation rights 2 percent).

In 2011, the global revenue from music streaming was comparatively low with a market share of 4.1 percent and a revenue of US $600m. However, the countries, for which IFPI provides data, have not developed uniformly as highlighted in the following analysis.

Music Streaming Revisited – the International Music Streaming Market 2014

Music streaming is on the rise. In the recent IFPI report “Recording Industry in Numbers 2014” IFPI CEO Frances Moore is cited with “Streaming is now a mainstream part of the modern music industry.” (IFPI 2015: 5) Indeed, global subscription streaming revenue increased by 39.0 per cent and ad-supported streaming revenue by 38.6 per cent in 2014. In 2014, the global music streaming market (ad-supported as well as subscription) has a volume of US $2.2bn, which is even bigger than the single track download market (US $1.9bn) (IFPI 2015: 9). Music streaming, therefore, accounts for nearly a third of the global recorded music market. However, the market share of music streaming differs between countries. Whereas in Sweden the music streaming market share is 70 per cent of the overall recorded music market, in Germany just 6.3 per cent of the recorded music revenue comes from music streaming sources. And Japan, the second largest recorded music market in world, lags behind with meagre 3.1 per cent.

In the following I would like to highlight the economic relevance of the music streaming market segment in an international comparison.