Apple Music helps US recorded music market grow 8.1% in first half of 2016

A good news day: Revenue from subscription music services more than doubled in the US in the first half of 2016 – driving overall market growth of 8.1%.
According to new figures from the RIAA, paid-for on-demand platforms like Apple Music and Spotify Premium generated revenues of $1.013bn in the six month period – growth of 112%, and enough to offset declines from downloads, CDs and vinyl sales. (Yes, we’re afraid so: vinyl revenues fell.)
The jump in subscription revenue is promising but predictable: last year’s figures barely included cash from Apple Music, which launched on June 30, 2015.
Largely thanks to that launch (as well as Jay Z’s Tidal), the value of the average paid-for US monthly music subscription has gone up: from $8.77 in the first half of 2015 to $9.23 in the equivalent period of this year.
At the same time, the number of people paying for a subscription music service in H1 2016 grew 101% to 18.3m, up from 9.1m the year before.
Total six-month US recorded music industry revenues jumped up by more than $250m to $3.43bn on a retail basis in H1 2016.
On a wholesale basis – ie. purely in terms of cash flowing through to labels and artists – the market grew 5.7% to $2.4bn in the period.

Posted by Tim Ingham on Music Business, read the full article here.