For some time now, the music industry has been tracking trends of increased revenue from streaming as income from physical formats and downloads wanes. The RIAA H1 2017 data shows that the first half of this year continued those trajectories. Streaming secured a 62% share of the first-half revenues and total streaming revenue for the period was $2.5 billion. Continue Reading
Cary Sherman will step down from his role as CEO and chairman of the RIAA at the end of 2018. Sherman has been with the industry group for more than four decades, beginning as an outside counsel and then climbing the ladder to the top post. Continue Reading
The RIAA report presents a snapshot of the U.S. recorded music market. For 2016, that photo puts streaming front and center. Streaming platforms generated the majority of the U.S. music industry’s revenue during the year, securing 51% of the industry total. Continue Reading
The RIAA often leads the industry charges in legal actions for the digital music space and it has ridden into the fray once more. It is suing a streaming website and app called Spinrilla on behalf of several major record labels. The RIAA said it found more than 21,000 copyrighted sound recordings uploaded to the platform. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: A Forbes columnist revisits successful 2016 predictions for the music and music-service industry, and ventures to predict 2017 events. General Counsel of the RIAA explains why 2017 will be a “critical year.” Continue Reading
The RIAA has released its mid-year report, complete with data on the music industry’s first six months of 2016. The U.S. market’s H1 period for 2016 echoes the trend we’ve seen in many markets worldwide of rising results for streaming, subscriptions in particular, as downloads and physical sales decline. Continue Reading
2015 was a banner year for streaming. The RIAA released its results for the past year and found that streaming was not just the biggest segment of digital revenue, but also the largest component of industry revenue, period. The performance for 2015 demonstrated that streaming music continues its rise in both cultural and financial importance for the music industry. Continue Reading
News items and worthy reads from around the web: Will Streaming Music Kill Songwriting? Also the RIAA’s half-measures in streaming and forecasting a direct-to-fan future Continue Reading
The RIAA has decided that streaming counts will be included toward albums’ gold and platinum certification. On-demand audio and video streams will be a factor in measuring performance effective immediately. Gold certification is awarded to an album with 500,000 sales, while platinum is 1 million sales and multi-platinum is 2 million. Continue Reading
Grooveshark was formally closed down in May after settling with the RIAA, but the questionably legal streaming site stayed alive as a series of clones. Today the recording industry group won a successful case against the reincarnated Grooveshark site. Continue Reading
It was a short run. Aurous has formally settled with the RIAA for $3 million and has officially shut down. Aurous appeared on the scene in October, promoting itself as a free (and ad-free) streaming platform that pulled music from licensed third-party sources. Continue Reading
As rumored, Pandora has settled with the RIAA for use of pre-1972 music through this year and next. Settlement cost is $90-million. This development comes a few months after Sirius XM, likewise a defendant in cases focusing on performance use of oldies, settled with major labels and other litigants through 2017, at a coast of $210-million. Continue Reading