Music streaming in Norway is so big even download drops can’t hold it back
Norway’s music industry saw an impressive rise in profits despite music download sales falling, thanks to an incredible rise in streaming and physical music profits.
Norway has been one of the biggest digital music consumers over the years and that’s not changing with the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) revealing a 7.8% rise in music profits for 2016’s first half.
The most notable element in Norway’s booming music industry is the prevalence of music streaming which accounts for up to 83% of recorded music revenues, a rise from 80% this time last year. The rise in streaming popularity has been fuelling Norway’s music industry since it flatlined in 2014, boosting profits by 6.9% by 2015.
Despite correlations being drawn between the rise in streaming and drops in music sales, physical music in Norway has actually seen a revenue rise in the first half of 2016. Physical music sales have risen by 3 million NOK for a total of 43 million NOK ($5.2 million). The vinyl resurgence is also alive and well in Norway where vinyl sales have risen 43% from 9.9 million NOK ($1.2 million) to 14.2 million NOK ($1.7 million).
IFPI Norway’s CEO, Marte Thorsby said: “It is positive that the sale of music continues to grow significantly in Norway. A total increase of 7.8% is among the international elite. Continued revenue growth in streaming services shows that the market is still not saturated and we believe in continued increase in sales in the years to come.”
Digital music downloads aren’t seeing the same success in Norway and have seen a significant drop of 32% compared to the first half of 2015. Music download’s value in Norway has dropped from 21 million NOK ($2.5 million) to 14 million NOK ($1.7 million). Digital downloads now only account for 4% of the total music profits in Norway.
The report also noted the low streaming rates of music on YouTube. Thorsby added: “Our concern is that the income from the video stream, including YouTube, is still so low. Knowing that 25% of the population daily use YouTube, it is far from reasonable that they only pay a fraction of what competitors Spotify, Tidal and Apple Music pays to artists and record companies.”