three tenths of one percent up... pop the cork... it's a statistical zero at best and an inflation to keep someone in a job at worst.

not holding my breath. streaming is not the answer. if Spotify had 30m US subscribers they could only add 2.5b to the overall revenue pool... that's against 8.5b in losses annually. not sure how anyone really thinks that math works.

"streaming is not the answer"

No -- the answer is to remove the reason for the decline.

And that's what's going on right now.

sure...

Over 50 Major Brands Supporting Music Piracy, It’s Big Business!

How Musicians Are (Not) Making Money, and who is… @SFMusicTech w/ East Bay Ray

Yeah that graph doesn't even account for inflation. In 1999 I was paying a buck twenty for gasoline.

It also doesn't break down recording music revenues, this is revenue for ALL music, even music recorded 50 years ago. Old music revenues is much higher than new music revenues, and the proportion is has done nothing but increase over the past decade. That's great for retired musicians in nursing homes, but it's not helpful for musicians in the business now.

Basically, anyone who thinks they can make money from making music right now should be committed to a mental institution.

"Basically, anyone who thinks they can make money from making music right now should be committed to a mental institution"

Global recorded music industry revenues rose last year for the first time since 1999.

Source: Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f7b0f2b0-8009-11e2-adbd-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2MNEc5fTL

And the war on piracy has just begun. Everything's changing now...

And the war on piracy has just begun.

Are you on crack?

It is very important to understand that a new, internationally coordinated war on piracy started last year.

Here are some of the first initiatives: Blocked piracy sites all over Europe... 6 Strikes in the US... fines in Japan, New Zealand, Russia... huge fines to illegal file-sharing site admins... new measures on their way in France & elsewhere... lots of lockers & torrent sites shut down after the fall of MegaUpload... growing pressure on credit card companies, Google and others to completely cut off criminal sites.

Stay tuned for even more breathtaking initiatives...

That's a print edition of Billboard. How quaint.

As they are talking about mandating liability insurance for all gun owners, the only thing more ironic for the music industry in the face of this steady decline would be to mandate that all musicians have to have insurance...wait, Obama did that didn't he?

Ouch.

"Basically, anyone who thinks they can make money from making music right now should be committed to a mental institution"

Speaking as a professional artist consultant, I find this statement not only untrue, but insulting to those who are making a living at it. 

I just sent out a record to radio today for a roots music band that is full time, plays 200 shows a year around the country and has a full staff including a manager, a booking agent, a publicist, TWO radio promo entities, a traveling sound guy etc. 

So please don't try telling those of us actually helping people make money that you can't ... 'cuz .. cous' .. that's just plain bullshit. 

just sayin.