Warner: digital music revenue up 17%, streaming grows faster
updated 02:20 pm EST, Thu February 9, 2012
Warner sees digital music revenue growth in Q4
Warner Music Group was reported its fourth quarter sales, and while they stayed consistent, at $780 million, revenue from digital music sales increased by 17 percent. What's more, it is now a 28 percent slice of the pie of all sales. This is a sign of the changing way music lovers access their music, and the label provided a further breakdown of these sales.
Direct track or album downloads from music stores that were topped by iTunes but also included Amazon and others, made up $205 million in revenues last quarter. Streaming services, which are growing much faster, at 36 percent rather than 15 percent for downloads, generated a much less significant $15 million. These sites include Spotify, Rdio, and Slacker, among others.
Ideally, the music industry would like to see nothing but monthly subscribers to shore up revenues, but the growing number of paid streaming subscribers suggests those who downloaded music illegally are gradually moving in that direction. Many see the ad-supported free versions of services like Spotify as ways to "catch" listeners that would otherwise pirate or only selectively buy albums and songs. [via AllThingsD]
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2009
Yup
Monthly subscribers at what the major labels want. Reliable monthly payments to them, while simultaneously being able to pay out next to nothing to the actual performers and the performers have no way to figure out how much they should be paid.