music industry
Audio streaming continues to grow – vinyl trend continues
Music fans in Germany are increasingly shopping digitally, but don’t forget the good old vinyl record either. photo
© Armin Weigel/dpa
Those who are said to be dead live longer: The industry now sells just over 80 percent of music digitally via streaming. But business with the good old record continues to grow.
Music fans in Germany are increasingly shopping digitally, but don’t forget the good old vinyl record either. The audio stream business has continued to grow in the German music industry. After further growth of 9.1 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period last year, this format achieved a 73.3 percent share of total sales, as the Federal Association of the Music Industry (BVMI) announced on Thursday in its half-year trend report.
This means that 80.2 percent of the proceeds from music sales in Germany are now generated digitally. Overall, the industry turned over 967 million euros in the first six months of the year – an increase of 5.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
In the so-called physical sound carrier market, the comeback of the record continues. According to BVMI information, sales in the booming vinyl business increased by a remarkable 12.3 percent, and the market share was 6.2 percent. Although the CD continued to decline (minus 6.5 percent in sales), it lost significantly more in the first half of 2021 (minus 16.4 percent). The market share was 12.8 percent. All in all, just under a fifth of total sales (19.8 percent) are still being achieved with sales of sound recordings.
“The general trend towards digital music usage with the simultaneous continued importance of the physical segment is unbroken,” said BVMI CEO Florian Drücke. The association represents the interests of around 200 record producers and companies, which represent more than 80 percent of the German music market.