CCIA Report: Digital Music Industry Sees Strong Revenue Growth, Creativity, Choice

A technology association-backed report released this week shows strong growth in revenues for the music industry over the past 5 to 10 years, driven by digital music. The data counters the current European copyright reform concern over a “value gap” for the music industry, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) said. 

The research paper, “Value Growth and the Music Industry: The Untold Story of Digital Success,” was authored by  senior public policy manager for CCIA Europe Maud Sacquet. She presented it at a high-level working lunch in Brussels on “Value Creation, Streaming Video and the Music Industry” organised on 18 October by the Lisbon Council.

According to CCIA:

Music industry’s own reports show that:

• in the first half of 2017, wholesale revenues of the record industry grew by 14.6% in the United States, to reach $2.7 billion;
• retail revenues from streaming platforms grew from 48% to $2.5 billion, including revenues from ad-supported streaming platforms which grew 37% over the same period.
• global collecting societies’ revenues have been growing steadily to reach €8.6 billion in 2015, a 26% increase since 2008.
• Between 2010 and 2015, close to half of the growth in collecting societies’ income came from digital.
• EU citizens are those who pay collecting societies the most, globally, per capita and as a share of GDP.

​These figures (and those included in the paper) undermine the case for a “value gap” and show that digital streaming services enable massive value growth.

“Part of the debate over European copyright reform focuses on the idea of a so-called ‘value gap’,” Sacquet said in a release. “This research paper demonstrates instead healthy rises in revenue for legacy music players and that digital streaming services enable massive value growth.”