US music industry will grow, fuelled by live

The American music industry is set to grow by about 1% a year through to 2017 according to new predictions from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The predicted growth will be driven by the live sector, with the music rights side of the industry still likely to see some declines overall.

According to the report, PwC analysts say that the US concert business will continue to expand, with a 'compound annual growth rate' of 3%, meaning the sector would be worth in the region of $10 billion a year by 2017. Revenues from digital music will continue to grow despite various signs that the download market may have peaked in the US, and music rights owners could see digital revenues increase 5.1% per year across the board, which would equate to $4.6 billion a year by 2017. There will be an ongoing decline in CD sales, the format now being in "terminal decline", according to the report and physical product would be worth just $1.4 billion by 2017.

Stats from French record industry trade group SNEP showed that recorded music sales were down 6.7% year-on-year for the first quarter of 2013. CD sales were down 7.3% in the quarter, but digital revenues had also dropped, for the first time since such a revenue began, down 5.2%. 

There was some optimistic stats in a new report this week commissioned by Norwegian streaming music firm WiMP, which assessed consumer "willingness to pay" for streaming services such as those operated by WiMP, Deezer and Spotify. The survey, which focused on five Northern European markets, found that on average a third of those surveyed expressed a willingness to pay to access a decent streaming music platform (ranging from 25% in Germany to 48% in Norway), while only a quarter said they'd never consider paying for such a service.

And in the UK Prime Minister David Cameron has hailed the global success of British music as new BPI figures revealed big-selling albums by Adele, Emeli Sandé, Mumford & Sons, One Direction and Ed Sheeran boosted UK artists’ share of album sales globally to 13.3% in 2012, the highest on record.  One Direction smashed records in the USA in 2012, becoming the first UK group to have their debut album enter the US chart at No.1.  Both 1D albums –Up All Night and Take Me Home - made the global year-end top five. Two debut albums, Emeli Sandé’s Our Version Of Events and Ed Sheeran’s +, also featured in the global top 20.  Strong worldwide sales were also achieved by albums from established British acts including Coldplay, Rod Stewart, Led Zeppelin and Muse. In the USA – the world’s most competitive music market – British music  accounted for 13.7% of artist albums sold in 2012, and UK artists increased their share of the French albums market to 18.3% - the highest since 2003. British bands continued to do well at home, taking a 51.9% albums share, with seven of the top ten selling artist albums of 2012 and the entire top three.