Streaming, vinyl boom push music revenues to overtake cinema’s pre-pandemic peak

Older bands, such as Oasis, have reformed to tap into the surge in popularity of live music. Photo / Joe Kohen, WireImage for New York Post

Music industry revenues rose a 10th last year, overtaking cinema’s pre-pandemic sales peak, on the back of booming streaming platforms and the renaissance in vinyl records.

Annual revenues from copyrighted music were $45.5 billion (NZ$77.8b) last year, up a quarter since 2021 and double the 2014 figure, according to a report based on data from trade bodies.

It compares with cinema box office spending of $33.2b last year and $41.9b in 2019, according to media consultancy Omdia.

“Make no mistake: it’s boom time,” said Will Page, the report’s author, a former chief economist at music streaming platform Spotify and a fellow of the London School of Economics.

“Cinema’s pain has been the streamers’ gain,” Page said, noting that streamers tended to pay more for music than filmmakers do.

“If you had suggested when we first did this exercise in 2015 that music might overtake cinema, you would have been laughed out of the room.”

Revenues for record labels and their artists were $28.5b, up 12% on a year earlier, showing how the industry has ridden the growth in music consumption helped by the popularity of streaming services.

The remainder — about a third — was accounted for by music publishers and songwriters, with consumers paying for music directly as well as commercial enterprises such as TV shows and restaurants.

Physical sales of music such as CDs and vinyl rose faster than streaming revenues, with vinyl in particular rising by 15.4%.

In the US alone, vinyl will generate $1b a year for labels by the end of 2024, and will soon overtake CD sales, the report predicted.

Page’s report, an annual study, uses data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, artists’ organisation CISAC and the International Confederation of Music Publishers.

The value for music publishers and songwriters of live performance now exceeds that of general licensing such as through shops and hotels, showing the extent to which bands and artists hit the road to make their money rather than relying on their old releases being played in retail and hospitality settings.

Several older bands — such as Oasis — have reformed to tap into the surge in popularity of live music, while acts such as Coldplay are playing venues on more nights.

The value of digital channels now exceeds that of broadcast and radio for music publishers and songwriters, according to the report.

A decade ago, digital made up about 5% of revenue collections, while broadcast made up half.

The report also shows the globalisation of music, with almost a third of all streams inside America from non-American artists.

Written by: Daniel Thomas

© Financial Times