Streaming Revenue to Overtake Physical Sales

2017’s streaming revenue will overtake physical sales for the first time.

18:31 30 August 2017

Physical sales of entertainment products have been steadily decreasing even since online streaming was introduced to consumers. From just 5.3% in 2002, online streaming market share is now at 60.3%. Although, further growth is expected to slow over the next five years, more and more players are entering the market.

 

Apple launched its Apple Music in 2015 after the demise of music download market caused iTunes sales to struggle. Amazon followed the company’s footsteps by launching its Amazon Unlimited in 2016. Meanwhile, Disney introduced its own service, Disney Life, in 2015 and will extend this to its other franchise, ESPN, in 2018. Tesla is also rumoured to be launching its own music streaming service.

 

The growing competition in the market benefits the customers who now enjoy longer free trials as well as greater choice and variation in content. The growing competition also pushes services to outplay each other by offering greater selection as well as unique content, which provides even more of an incentive for customers to convert to streaming services.