Music industry makes $26bn but wants streaming prices to rise
nme.comaccording to the trade body IFPI.In addition, sales of physical formats rose by 4%, generating $4.6bn (£3.7bn) in revenues. Almost half of that figure (49.8%) came from Asia, where buying CDs and vinyl as souvenirs is a staple of the “idol” culture of Japan and South Korea.Performance royalties also rose by 8.6% to $2.5bn (£2.04bn), surpassing pre-pandemic levels.However, record labels are pushing for prices to rise to increase the industry’s income from streaming services.
Spotify, for example, hasn’t raised the price of its premium subscription since it launched back in 2009 – subscribers have only ever paid £9.99 a month.“It would help if music subscription pricing could reflect the realities of inflation,” said Simon Robson, president of international markets for Warner Music.Warner Music CEO Robert Kyncl recently suggested that the US rate should rise to $13.25 (£10.83), based on the 2011 US launch price of $9.99, adjusted for inflation, arguing that music is “undervalued”.“This is not my opinion – there are actually numbers to back it up,” he told Music Week. “If you take the US, the price that the user pays per hour of consumption of music is half of what they pay for movies and TV shows on streaming services.
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