by Felix Richter, Statista.com
2015 was a pretty good year for the music industry.
According to IFPI, worldwide recorded music revenues totaled $15 billion, up 3.2 percent from the previous year’s total of $14.5 billion. This marks the first significant uptick for the struggling industry after nearly two decades of gradual decline.
Interestingly, it has been the transition to digital formats that has both fueled the decline and helped stop it. A 45 percent increase in streaming revenues propelled total digital music revenue to $6.7 billion in the past year, offsetting the ongoing decline in physical format sales and surpassing them for the first time.
It appears as if the music industry has finally bottomed out as both consumers and the industry have come to accept that the future of music is digital. IFPI estimates that the number of paid streaming subscribers has grown from 20 to 68 million in the past three years. It will be interesting to observe if the industry can maintain its upward momentum going forward, now that it has successfully completed the transition to the digital age of music.
This chart shows global recorded music industry revenues since 2005.
You will find more statistics at Statista.
