Japan’s streaming revenue increases 43% in H1, but still has a long way to go

Japan’s listeners have been resistant to adopting digital options for music, but the first half of 2015 revealed some progress for streaming in the country. Streaming subscriptions increased 43% in the first six months of the year to 5.04 billion yen ($42 million).

Although that’s a sizeable spike for streaming, that sector only generated 3% of Japan’s overall music industry revenue for H1. The whole recorded music field saw revenue increase 1.1% in the half to 152.29 billion yen ($1.27 billion). Physical music sales still hold 85% of total revenue, and that metric did rise to 129.4 billion yen in this half, compared with 128.8 billion yen in the year-ago period.

The first half figures mark an encouraging turnaround for Japan, which reported a decline in sales for all of 2014.