A small and relatively hostile corner of the music industry has long been at war with ad-supported streaming services that provide free access to content. The point of conflict is always the same: while there's no problem with the mechanism itself, it simply doesn't pay enough. Now the RIAA has released a report indicating that in the first half of this year, a market has already become more valuable than ad-supported streaming: vinyl sales.
The industry and consumers alike converted the compact disc into the definitive distribution system for acquiring and listening to music, but with the intervention of the internet and high-speed connections, digital services simply exploded. This showed that for most users, access to content is more important than the medium itself, although there is an even more powerful element behind it. A good part of the latest generation of internet users decided that music should be free, or alternatively, that it should have a very different value than what the old record labels expect. Artists complaining about what streaming pays, stars pulling entire catalogs, subscription-based models, and fierce competition shape this "musical cold war" that has every intention of heating up.
The RIAA's Mid-Year Report
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, an association we usually find "on the other side of the fence," published a semi-annual report revealing very interesting data about the current state of the music market. First, the obvious: the digital spectrum has grown, fueled by streaming. Subscription services, SoundExchange distributions, and ad-supported streaming improved their numbers by an average of 24 percent. However, there's a detail worth highlighting. Physical music shipments dropped in value by 17 percent compared to last year, but vinyl sales registered an impressive 52.1 percent increase in the first half of this year compared to 2014, and their gross value ($221.8 million) already exceeds what free streaming generated ($162.7 million).
Streaming and Vinyl: Two Different Audiences
In other words, the venerable vinyl record represents 30 percent of physical shipments by value, and everything suggests that percentage will continue to rise for the rest of the year. Although the RIAA study focuses on the US market, the vinyl counterattack has been on our radar for several years. Improvements in technology, combined with the ever-present nostalgic component and greater financial availability among its fans, set the pace for vinyl around the globe. Can we talk about "competition" in this case? Personally, I don't think so. Streaming and vinyl respond to two completely different audiences, and that separation is definitely healthy for the market.
