Belgium’s recorded music business grows 6.5% in H1 2016

September 9, 2016

The Belgium music market grew 6.5% in the first half of 2016 thanks to an 80% rise in income from streaming.

Revenue earned from recorded music reached €52.93m in the first half of 2016, up from €49.69m during the same period last year.

From 2005 to 2013, the Belgium music market declined 29%. However, the country has seen more positive results in recent years.

Trade association BEA attributes recent growth to the arrival of Apple Music and its premium-only tier.

Streaming earned €17.9m from January – June, up from €9.8m in 2015 and counting for 34% of sales.

CD is still the strongest format, representing 45% of the market with €23.83m.

However, that’s down 13% on last year’s €27.39m.

Downloads are also down 17.5%, now accounting for 15% of the market with €7.94m.

Vinyl is up 28.4% at €2.43m from €1.89, and music related physical video products (DVDs, blu-ray, VHS) count for 1%, down 14% at €0.82m from €0.95m last year.

Overall, physical formats take 51% of the market.

“Premium streaming [has] now [started to advance] our country’s [music market] and will eventually be larger than CD sales.”
olivier maeterlinck, bea

“Premium streaming [has] now [started to advance] our country’s [music market] and will eventually be larger than CD sales,” said Olivier Maeterlinck, director of BEA.

“On the other hand, the album in CD format will continue to do well, as will vinyl, especially given the new music releases in the autumn.”

Belgian girl band K3’s 10,000 Balloons, released via [PIAS], topped the list of best selling albums in Belgium in H1 2016.

It was followed by Adele’s 25, David Bowie’s Blackstar, Clouseau’s Clouseau Dancing and Stan Samang’s Love For Public.

Lukas Graham’s hit 7 Years was No.1 on Belgium’s best selling singles list, followed by Alan Walker’s Faded, Mike Posner’s I Took A Pill In Ibiza, Dua Lipa’s Be The One and Twenty One Pilot’s Stressed Out.

Check out the full lists, sourced from EB, below.

Album: