Global music sales grow for second year to $15.7 bn

PanARMENIAN.Net - Music sales rose robustly for a second straight year, posting growth not seen in two decades thanks to the rapid adoption of streaming, the global industry body said Tuesday, April 25, AFP reports.

Despite sliding CD sales and downloads, revenue from recorded music around the world grew 5.9 percent in 2016 to total $15.7 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.

The growth tops the previous year's 3.2 percent increase and marks the fastest rate since 1997 -- when the recorded music industry first suffered a jolt with the dawn of the internet age.

Streaming revenue jumped 60 percent in 2016. Spotify led the way but the report said the market was buoyed by rising consumer choice among on-demand platforms including Apple Music, Tidal and Deezer.

Music executives cautioned that the market remained fragile and that the industry will need to keep adapting, with streaming only in its infancy.

"Remember, we're only two years into our recovery after a decade and a half of decline," Stu Bergen, CEO for international and global commercial services at Warner Music Group, told reporters on a conference call.

"We must remain alert, resourceful and ambitious. We're no longer running up a down escalator, but that doesn't mean we can relax," he said.

Music sales expanded in almost all major markets. Latin America had the highest rate of growth at 12 percent, led by a boom in Mexico even as the region's largest market Brazil slipped slightly.