Rockol Tracks: Why IFPI’s 2013 global music sales figures matter
IFPI, the trade body representing the international recorded-music industry, is unveiling the global figures for total 2013 sales and digital revenues tomorrow 18 March.
And Rockol.com, which will be at the media briefing, will report the figures in tomorrow’s edition.
It will be interesting to see what IFPI, which is chaired by opera maestro Placido Domingo no less, has in store for the beleaguered industry.
In 2012, it saw a ray of recovery hope when global revenues rose for the first time since 1999. The modest 0.3% rise, however, was worth it.
It proved the organization’s hard work was paying off. IFPI has been ramping up its collective act in promoting the value of legal physical and digital music in recent years. And its uncompromising fight against piracy has seen the industry watch its every pronouncement.
Anticipation for last year's figures tomorrow is no different. Already, US trade publication Billboard has predicted that IFPI will show sales in the UK, France, Germany and most of Scandinavia have increased from 2012.
As the global economy crawls its way back to some form of recovery, we hope to see more positive results tomorrow. Will they be better than the 9% growth in 2012’s global digital sales to $5.6 billion? Will more countries worldwide be shunning free unauthorized online music and commit to the new licensed streaming and download services?
At the beginning of 2013, 100-plus countries offered legal digital services, compared to only 23 at the start of 2011, according to IFPI. By last year, there were more than 500 legitimate digital-music services worldwide. The fight against rogue free music offerings is yielding dividends. And a lot of those dividends could be coming from the emerging subscription-funded and/or advertising streaming services.
News that Sweden-originated Spotify, the largest streaming service with 6 million-plus paying subscribers, is scheduled to list on the US stock exchange has triggered belief that streaming is the future.
Spotify rival Beats Music, co-founded by rap artist and mogul Dr Dre and label executive Jimmy Iovine, recently gained a reported $100 million in new investment.
Meanwhile, another competitor Rdio, whose creators either co-founded or invested in success stories like Skype, Last.fm, Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment and the notorious but now defunct peer-to-peer music file-sharing platform Kazaa, has been expanding with its acquisition of Indian service Dhingana.
Furthermore, media-research company ABI Research predicts the number of streaming-music subscribers will grow to 191 million worldwide in 2018 from 29 million last year.
It will be interesting to see what IFPI reveals tomorrow. Is streaming adding to or cannibalizing the existing digital-download sales? Whatever its conclusions will be, it is safe to say Spotify, Beats Music and Rdio will be paying close attention.
[Juliana Koranteng]