Streaming services and their revenue has definitely saved the music business according to new music industry report, which notes that 2017 was the third consecutive year of revenue growth thanks to digital music consumption. Globally, recorded music revenues reached $17.4 Billion in 2017, up form $16 Billion in 2016. That is an annual growth rate of 8 percent. Streaming revenues in particular have contributed to this growth and were up 39 percent Year-over-Year to reach $7.4 Billion, or 43 percent of all revenues. That offset some of the declines from legacy formats, like downloads and physical albums, which fell by an estimated $783 Million.
There are other factors which also come into play, like the country in which a song was streamed and the currency value in that country. However Spotify admits the average "per stream" payout to rights holders lands somewhere between $0.006 and $0.0084
In the U.S., digital revenue last year grew 15 percent to $6.5 Billion, up from 5.65 Billion the year before. A good-sized portion of those revenues came from streaming music subscriptions, which grew 63 percent from $2.5 Billion in 2016 to 4 Billion the year after.
The U.S. has become the most important streaming market worldwide, accounting for 40 percent of the total global recorded music revenues . Thanks to the innovation and diversity of the music services available in the U.S., the report predicts that the number of paid music subscribers will reach 90 Million by 2025 which is almost double from today's numbers.
What this means for the indie artist is there are a lot of room for the music professional to get in on the action. Please take the time to strategize a plan in action and take a piece of the pie. Some of the pie is better than none of the pie at all. If you are hungry, you can eat. As you see here, there a good living out there with your music if you want it.
