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State of the Screens

Visualizing 40 Years of Music Industry Sales

By October 17, 2018No Comments

Big news: For the first time in more than a decade, music revenue has started growing again.

Streaming revenue per year:
1) 2007 — $200M
2) 2017 — $6.6B

YoY growth rate in streaming revenue:
1) 2012 — ↑ 61%
2)
2013 — ↑ 61%
3)
2014 — ↑ 20%
4)
2015 — ↑ 56%
5)
2016 — ↑ 83%
6)
2017 — ↑ 59%

Flashback: #1: The music industry’s 9-figure war for Taylor Swift

The music industry just finished the best year in a decade with $8.7B in revenue w/ streaming accounting for 65%.

Streaming revenue by year (% growth):
1) 2014 — $1.8B
2) 2015 — $2.3B (↑ 28%)
3) 2016 — $4.0B (↑ 74%)
4) 2017 — $5.7B (↑ 43%)

Flashback #2: After Driving Streaming Music’s Rise, Spotify Aims to Cash In

How Spotify makes money:
1) Subscriptions — 90%
2) Advertising — 10%

Spotify currently has 180M users around the world.

Types of users (% of total):
1) Non-paying — 97M (54%)
2) Paying — 83M (46%)

Big question: Can anyone catch Spotify?

Pandora and SoundCloud are making moves with the announcement of a new partnership.

The details:
1) SoundCloud inventory will now be sold by Pandora reps.
2) 100M unique users between the two groups
3) 13% overlap between their listener bases

Video: Pandora teams up with SoundCloud on advertising.

More #1: ‘The industry is demanding it’: Spotify adopts Nielsen Brand Effect for verification on ad platform

More #2: Here’s why SiriusXM is purchasing Pandora for $3.5 billion

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.