Statistics In The United States Music Industry

Statistics in the US’ Music Industry

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[Institution Name] Statistics in the US’ Music Industry The music industry is highly important as it mainly influences the economy of the US. The industry is composed of four main sectors including physical formats, digital downloads, performance rights and synchronization. In 2013, these combined sectors generated substantial revenues totaling to about US$7 billion in the US (Friedlander, 2013). However, this is a stagnant figure as the previous three years had almost similar revenue amounts. The emergence of new technologies and proliferation of the internet has largely affected the growth of the industry. In this context, the consumption levels of different formats of music have been altered in various ways. At first, statistics indicate that the sale of physical formats is on a rapid decrease. In this case, the physical formats include compact discs (CDs) and vinyl. The CDs dominate the physical formats market with 87% share. In 2013, the sale of physical formats was US$2.4 billion, which was a decline from US$2.8 realized in 2012 (Friedlander, 2013). Notably, the shipment of physical formats declined from

Dolata (2011) notes that changes in the music industry are attributable to gradual changes in both the market and market relations. In this regard, there is an increased preference for digital music files and diverse marketing models including subscriptions, such as Rhapsody and Spotify, and digital-only music releases. For instance, in 2013, paid subscriptions accounted for about US$628 million, which was a 57% rise from the revenue obtained in 2012 (Friedlander, 2013). Moreover, the distribution of digital music is facilitated by the internet where streaming is a common phenomenon. Through streaming, fans listen to music for free or on paid subscriptions such as Pandora. Approximately US$1.4 billion was realized from streaming in