In first, streaming top earner for US music business

Streaming has become for the first time the top money-maker for the US recorded music business, but it has struggled to offset falling CD sales and downloads, industry data showed on March 22.

Releasing its 2015 figures, the Recording Industry Association of America said that streaming grossed more than $2 billion led by rising subscriptions for services such as Spotify.
 
Amid the emergence last year of new players such as Apple Music and Tidal, revenue from paid subscriptions to streaming services -- which offer unlimited, on-demand listening -- grew by more than 50 percent.
 
Streaming accounted for 34.3 percent of overall revenue in the world's largest music market, narrowly edging out permanent digital downloads on platforms such as iTunes.
 
But despite streaming's rapid growth, the industry's overall revenue last year went up a mere 0.9 percent to $7 billion.
 
CD sales and digital downloads slipped with revenue from albums on CD, long a staple of the industry, down 17 percent in revenue.
 
The recording association hailed the growth of streaming in a statement that said 2015 saw "the most balanced revenue mix in recent history," with streaming, downloads and physical sales each making up roughly one third of sales.
 
But it also warned that the revenue setup from streaming was not keeping pace.
 
The industry group, without explicitly condemning companies, clearly was pointing the finger at YouTube and the free tier of Spotify, which make money through advertising.
 
"We, and so many of our music community brethren, feel that some technology giants have been enriching themselves at the expense of the people who actually create the music," association president Cary Sherman...