Recently, Billboard reported that revenue coming in last year from streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and Pandora had revenue of $3.93 billion, an increase of 68.5% from 2015. The figure tops the total number of downloads, CDs, and vinyl sales combined, which brought in a total of $3.51 million.
One of the most curious things about this statement is how the music industry has come to almost rely on these services, yet used to denounce them. This revenue that has a reputation for shaking down artists has now begun to give their artists the payment they deserve, even though the per-stream payouts remain at a low.
Among this, vinyl revenue had increased 3.5% in 2016, leading to speculation among some that the vinyl resurgence has either finally reached its peak or is about to reach that point.
Digital download revenue has declined in the last year 24.1% last year, and the sale of actual physical media also dropped by 15.7%.
You can read more at Billboard.com.
