The format data comes from the Grammofonleverantörernas förening (GLF), or the Swedish Recording Industry Association. To view again, just wait!
The above is only loosely scaled, so here’s the breakdown of total revenues (same data source).
The Last 10 Years In Sweden (In 10 Seconds or Less…)
The chart makes no sense.
Streaming causes overall revenue to increase? It should be the other way around. Streaming like Youtube/Spotify prevent people from buying music (downloads, CDs, vinyl) and therefore bad for the music industry.
I think Sweden is a special case and won’t be repeating elsewhere. In the USA, streaming will cause the overall revenue to decrease. It needs to be boycotted.
Already download is down 2% for the year. The music labels should stop licensing music to Spotify. In fact, I think the decrease in download will force them to stop licensing to Spotify. Spotify death will be the music industry gain.
So the data (that’s HARD FACTS not just some idiot from Radiohead ranting) tells you that legally licensed and paid for streaming is increasing the revenue in Sweden and you think that’s a BAD thing?Seriously that is some flawed reasoning you have there.People like streaming. They don’t mind paying for it. If enough of them do so (like in Sweden) it makes revenue increase from the depths it sank to a few years ago.
“Hey, this data can’t possibly be correct because it doesn’t fit my baseless narrative that streaming kills record sales and will destroy the industry!” – that guy, and 80% of the people on this site
Well, we agree onto something… streaming is not going anywhere, so industry, artists and users better work on formulas to improve a fair monetizationover streaming because that will remain.
80%?
Nailed it
Sales in Sweden are almost dead for last two years. Spotify showmanship is bringing this growth. They hope for green light for any market based on Swedish results. Small market, so it is cheap to generate “global stamp of approval” with extraordinary payment policies.
In the meantime if you start in 1999 and estimate sales up to 2015 – the nirvana state of streaming for Sweden with no room for any other sales – you will find at the best 65% of best ever sales.
If we allow streamers to operate under current conditions global sales of music will never go over 25 billion = 62.5% of 1999. We can do much better without them or with streaming under modified conditions.
Spotify, Youtube, Deezer, Rdio remunerate the labels. Even if the user doesn’t pay, the service Spotify and Youtube monetize through advertising.
But of the music labels stop licensing to Spotify, people will either use YouTube (with even smaller payouts) of illegal sources (or both)
There is plenty of evidence to prove this. If you believe they won’t do this, do you honestly think they will switch to iTunes?
Where will these Spotify users go? They are obviously music lovers, serious listeners, so where will they get there music? iTunes, CD’s, Vinyl??
I don’t think so.
what can you expect, it happens in most of the countries these days
i’m dumb. what does the streaming revenue mean exactly? is spotify a tech company whose revenue is counted as music industry revenue? or is it the revenue mostly from running ads (are they an advertising co.?) who is benefitting from that revenue–is the money going to shareholders (ie tech investors?) is the streaming money coming from advertising, or subscribers? are the people who used to buy a cd a month now spending the same amount on streaming, or is it the piraters who never spent that are now subscribing?
what happened in 2011 in sweden that shot the graph upwards?
dumb questions, outside the scope, probably…
I don’t know if it’s all of it, ie anti-piracy laws played a part too I’m sure, but a huge chunk is that Spotify took a huge bite out of piracy. So if all of a sudden you have millions of people who were stealing music start streaming, regardless of shitty royalties the gross is going to shoot up since you go from zero to an actual revenue.
QUESTION: what does the streaming revenue mean exactly?
ANSWER: Like YouTube but audio-only. Streaming is not a download.
QUESTION: is spotify a tech company whose revenue is counted as music industry revenue?
ANSWER: YES
QUESTION: or is it the revenue mostly from running ads (are they an advertising co.?)
ANSWER: Not sure of the breakdown. Most users are free w/ advertising but premium subs make more $ for everyone
QUESTION: who is benefitting from that revenue–is the money going to shareholders (ie tech investors?)
ANSWER: Major labels + investors like Goldman Sachs + top execs (artists very little)
QUESTION: is the streaming money coming from advertising, or subscribers?
ANSWER: See above
QUESTION: are the people who used to buy a cd a month now spending the same amount on streaming, or is it the piraters who never spent that are now subscribing?
ANSWER: Not nearly as much. Some casual pirates are on Spotify but very few pay for subs.
QUESTION: what happened in 2011 in sweden that shot the graph upwards?
ANSWER: Streaming revenues improved
Paul, do you have similar numbers for other European territories where Spotify has had more time to mature as a service than in the US? UK, Benelux, Spain, etc? Are any non-Scandinavian territories showing a similar pattern?
It’s a good question, and I think the data can be un-buried. In countries like France, I’m not sure the trend is as elegant or positive at in Sweden, however.
In my opinion blog, I partly delve into the reason why music subscriptions are artificially popular in countries like Sweden, France, etc.
Read it but where is the part about the artificial popularity?
Look for where I say many ISP customers are conned into subscribing to a so-called free Premium music subscription they will never use.
Conned? Never use? I can prove you wrong, but since you keep saying I’m faking numbers…
Here’s a nice read Yves:
Nothing in the article disproves anything I said in my blog.
I see this article more as a business executive trying to make a name for himself and his company, unfortunately with very poor arguments supporting Spotify over Rhapsody.
Why do I have the feeling if you spent months and months pouring over data and personally came to a positive conclusion about something with Spotify, you’d wouldn’t even believe yourself?
“a business executive trying to make a name for himself and his company”
Sort of like a failed muso trying to make a name for himself and his music on DMN 😉
Informative charts – nice job!
I think what everyone would love to see would be a similar analysis where the data focuses on royalties paid to artists via these different services during the same time frame.
Then we’d know once and for all the true state of affairs from everyone’s perspective.