Is the music industry back in tune yet?

Reports confirmed that the music industry is on its way to recovery after recording increase in revenue for the first time in 15 years

14:24 28 February 2013

After 15 long years, the music industry is finally on its way to recovery. Deeply hurt by web piracy and the decline of physical CD sales, the music industry seems to be fighting back, and now, for the first time in more than 10 years, it records its first increase in revenue. 

Industry bosses attribute this hard-won success to the growing digital revenues, as more and more music fans started to sign up to subscription streaming services instead of resorting to piracy.  

 

According to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the global recorded music revenue increased by 0.3per cent in 2012. On the other hand, digital revenues increased by 9per cent to $5.6billion in 2012. 

 

The report also said that the number of people using subscription services rose 44per cent to 20million in 2012. 

 

Cloud-based music services such as the ones offered by Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon has also help in increasing revenue as it improved user experience for licensed services. 

 

As for the bad news, the report confirms that there are still a lot of people, one-third of internet users globally to be exact, that are still regularly using unlicensed file-sharing sites.