Who says people still don’t love music downloads? Definitely not Amazon.
Music streaming is undoubtedly surging. The big three labels, Warner Music, UMG, and Sony Music, have all reported record streaming revenue. UMG alone earns $4.5 million a day from Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Earlier this year, Warner Music Group posted a solid 47% year-on-year growth thanks to streaming.
Music downloads, however, have seen sharp declines.
But that’s not to say that music downloads no longer bring in money, however. In 2016, thanks to services like iTunes and Amazon Music, digital downloads brought in nearly $5.8 billion, according to an RIAA report.
+ Raise Your Hand If You Still Like Music Downloads
While music streaming has helped push record label revenue to record numbers, a large percentage of music fans still love downloading music. A new study conducted by Limelight Networks studied the habits of millions of music listeners across several countries. They found that 46.2% of people still prefer downloading their music collections for offline listening. 37% of those surveyed preferred to stream music offline. A low 16.8% of people purchased CDs.
Examining the study, music downloading is far from dead. People’s habits still haven’t changed. A whopping 58.9% of people surveyed said they still download the same amount as last year. Music downloads have only declined 4.3% year-over-year.
Enter Amazon. Amazon actually offers a vast collection of music downloads for free. You’ll find tracks available to purchase and download from top artists like the Foo Fighters, Blondie, and more. The vast majority of downloads in this section are free (and the section is, after all, called ‘free’). However, some of the ‘free downloads’ still cost a low price of $1.29 each, like Boyz II Men’s “Snowy Day.”
You can check out the complete music downloads track listing here. Of course, to purchase the tracks for free, you will need an Amazon account.
Image by National Museum of American History Smithsonian Institute (CC by 2.0)
This site is now just a bunch of click bait, and I believe Daniel Sanchez is the worst offender of the “writers”. “The vast majority” of tracks are free? If only that were true, but alas it’s not.
You should really try reading the article.
All the independent labels and artists really support paid music downloads..
This has been a critical revenue source since the collapse of the CD.