IFPI GLOBAL MUSIC REPORT 2016

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s latest digital music report shows that revenue rose by 3.2 percent, topping $15 billion, in 2015. That’s the first significant jump since 1998, when global revenue rose 4.8 percent. Most of last year’s revenue growth came from paid subscription services, a category that includes Apple Music, and Spotify’s premium tier. But the labels are less than pleased with the revenue they collect from ad-supported services such as YouTube, YouTube’s deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music have either expired or will this year, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. The IFPI report is expected to add to the noise surrounding ad-supported services by showing that just 4 percent of global revenue, or around $600 million, is derived from ad-supported platforms, of which YouTube is by far the biggest. By comparison, paid subscription services generated an estimated $2 billion in revenue in 2015 - and the subscription services say that Google's YouTube has an unfair advantage, not least by hiding behind the DMCA. 

Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO Cory Sherman recently told Re-Code "There is now under way a study of whether the DMCA is actually effective and fulfilling its intended purpose, being conducted by the Copyright Office, and it has given us an opportunity for the community to collect our thoughts about just how dysfunctional the DMCA actually is. And to actually tell the government about it" and "We feel like the 1998 Internet is not the Internet of 2016. It’s a dramatically different Internet, and it’s time to take a fresh look at whether the balance that was struck in 1998 is effective in 2016" and "When you compare what we get when we get to freely negotiate, with a company like Spotify, vs. what we get when we are under the burden of an expansively interpreted “safe harbor,” when you’re negotiating with somebody like YouTube, you can see that you’re not getting the value across the platforms that you should."

http://www.ifpi.org/downloads/GMR2016.pdf

http://recode.net/2016/04/11/youtube-google-dmca-riaa-cary-sherman/