Streaming platforms beat out YouTube for first time in history
For the first time in history, audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have usurped on-demand music streaming on digital video platforms like YouTube and VEVO. A new mid-year report from trusted market monitor BuzzAngle found that in the first half of 2016, on-demand music streams increased 23%, while streams on audio platforms more than doubled, shooting up 108%.
According to the report, there were 209.4 billion on-demand streams in the US market in the first half of 2016 — that’s up 58.3% from the 132.3 billion streams in the first half of 2015. Audio streaming platforms saw 114.23 billion streams in the six-month period — 55% of total streaming consumption — and video platforms made up 45% of streaming consumption with 95.17 billion streams. The first half of 2016 is the first time that audio streams have overtaken video streams in the US.
This new information runs directly counter to Nielsen statistics, which found video streaming rates were well ahead of audio streams throughout 2015.
Overall, music streaming consumption across both platforms grew 58% in the six-month period. Unsurprisingly, album sales have taken a hit. Digital album sales are down 17%, and physical album sales are down 9.3%. Vinyl continues to grow, up 17.3% to 3.1 million.
Overall, the study found that Spotify’s value claim turns out to be true — total consumption of music in the US grew thanks to streaming.
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Categories: Music