Austrian Music Market Sees 61 Percent Hike in Streaming Revenue, Predictable Slides for CDs & Downloads
The Austrian music market is being boosted by the dynamic growth of streaming services, with 2.5 billion songs streamed in the first half of 2018 (compared to 1.5 billion songs in the first half of…
The Austrian music market is being boosted by the dynamic growth of streaming services, with 2.5 billion songs streamed in the first half of 2018 (compared to 1.5 billion songs in the first half of 2017).
Streaming sales increased by 61.1 percent to 23.2 million EUR, with the largest share (21.1 million EUR) generated by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited or Deezer.
Despite high user numbers, video streams (especially via YouTube) contributed a comparatively modest 1.4 million EUR. As for downloads, revenues of 5.6 million EUR were achieved in the first half of 2018, a decrease of 18 percent.
Overall, 53.5 million EUR was generated in the Austrian music market during the first half of 2018 — including streaming subscriptions, downloads and physical product. That amounted to a sales increase of 6.3 percent compared to the first half of 2017, as reported today in Vienna by Dietmar Lienbacher, Chairman of IFPI-Austria and Franz Medwenitsch, Managing Director of IFPI-Austria.
The turnover of the previously largest market segment of physical media like CDs amounts to 24.4 million EUR, down 15 percent. For the first time, more than half of the Austrian music market is digital. The share of the digital market, streaming and downloads, in the total market is 54 percent.
“Big Internet platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook and Co are distributing tens of millions of copyrighted works, making billions of advertising revenue, and those who created the content are either not rewarded or not fairly rewarded. This market-distorting imbalance is called the ‘value gap’ and is also clearly visible on the Austrian music market” reported Lienbacher.
More than two million users in Austria regularly use YouTube to stream music videos. In the first half of 2018, remuneration of only EUR 1.4 million was paid for this.
The situation with streaming providers like Spotify, who make license deals with the rights holders, is completely different. Here, the license sales amount to almost 22 million EUR, with about 800,000 users (premium and advertising-financed offers added up). The average benefit per user per year is dramatically different: 27 EUR on licensed offerings like Spotify – and less than 1 EUR on YouTube.
Lienbacher added that “around 800,000 Austrian music fans have a streaming subscription, streaming has replaced the CD as the biggest source of revenue. Therefore, it is important that everyone in the streaming market has to apply the same rules. And that content-providers like YouTube pay fair licenses.”
Medwenitsch added: “The current figures for the Austrian streaming market show once again that clear rules on the responsibility of the Internet platforms are long overdue. We hope that, as part of the reform of the European copyright law, the European Parliament will set the course for more fairness for the creative industries.”
Half of the top 10 albums are Austrian productions. Andreas Gabalier tops the charts with his album “Vergiß mein nicht”, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Muti celebrates third place with the “New Year’s Concert 2018.”
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