|Policy
Streaming music consumption continues to ramp up, not slow down. Mid-way through the year, the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) released statistics on the US music industry, and during the first half of 2017, revenues from streaming services accounted for 62 percent of the total market.
Playlist professionals have replaced radio DJs as the new power brokers, as streaming services’ ready-made song lists become hitmakers.
On average, Americans spend just over 32 hours a week listening to music in 2017, up 5.5 hours over last year. How is this possible? Technology. At home, at work and traveling in between, people are consuming more music than ever before, from more devices.
US record labels and others in the music industry are considering launching their own charts as an alternative to the iconic Billboard lists, according to multiple sources. The discussions come at a time when Billboard has come under fire for rumored changes in chart calculations that could include YouTube plays.
Technology continues to drive changes for how listeners are crafting and shaping their own music experience. Listening to music is more of an individual experience than ever before through playlist creation, choice of listening device and the management of what is shared across social media channels.
In what’s now become a familiar story, the U.S. recorded music industry has seen revenue growth accelerate again in the first half of 2017, up 17 percent over the first half of last year to $4.0 billion, according to the RIAA’s 2017 mid-year report.
It might sound like an echo chamber at this point, but the rise of voice-enabled devices seems to be good news for music streaming.
Music data, ownership records, and a horde of licenses remain wildly disorganized. Three weeks ago, Congress proposed a global, centralized music database to ensure that artists get paid on every streaming platform. And, every other platform — digital, physical, and analog — for that matter.
Two House Republicans introduced bills this week aimed at revamping the copyright system for music recordings.
For the last several years, the music business has been unified over one thing: SiriusXM and other digital-radio services must pay royalties for recordings made before 1972.