The German recorded music market grew 3.6% in the first half of 2016, powered by an 88% rise in revenue from streaming services.
However, CD sales were down 9.6% and counted for 52.3% of sales, according to BVMI figures.
Compared to the same period last year, vinyl was up 46.2%, with its market share rising to 4.3% – up 1.2% year-on-year.
Overall, the German music market is now split 60.4% physical and 39.5% digital, with streaming taking 24.4% of that digital figure (up from 12.8% in H1 2015) and downloads 14%.
The growth is slower than the 4.4% rise the German recorded music market reported in H1 2015, when streaming revenue shot up 87.4%.
Professor Dieter Gorny, Chairman of Germany’s Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI), said the swift switch to digital consumption serves as a reminder of the importance of ensuring artists are properly remunerated for their work from digital services.
Gorny referenced the letter sent by 1,100 musicians to the European Commission attacking YouTube’s safe harbour in Europe.
He said: “These figures indicate that the process of digitisation is occurring even faster than we had previously thought.
“As music becomes increasingly a digital business, it is more important than ever to establish the right environment for the whole sector to adapt in this new world.”
dieter gorny, BVMI
“As music becomes increasingly a digital business, it is more important than ever to establish the right environment for the whole sector to adapt in this new world.
“A few weeks ago, more than 1,100 musicians and bands signed and sent an open letter to the European Commission, thus showing that artists – who are the nucleus of our entire industry – have serious concerns about the value gap and about their future.
“The truth is that if we don’t find a solution to this, it might have profound consequences in the future on the art and the profession of making music.”
BVMI Managing Director Dr Florian Drucke added: “Although the sheer pace of digitisation may be causing some of us a bit of distress, we still consider the latest figures to be heartening in two ways.
“First of all, the German market continues its growth, thus enlarging everyone’s share of the pie. Secondly, the increases we’re seeing in the realm of audio streaming – almost a doubling of sale percentages in comparison to the first half of 2015 (12.8%) – make it clear that our industry is successfully adapting to the realities of the digital world.
“for this transformation to continue we must ensure that music content is sufficiently protected against copyright infringement.”
florian drucke, bvmi
“It also proves that we’ve developed offerings that a large number of consumers have long since accepted. However, the only way we can carry this transformation process further is if we ensure that our content is sufficiently protected against copyright infringement – both online and offline – and also that all participants are able to benefit fairly from the proceeds.
“Indeed, this isn’t about the future any longer, but about the digital present.”
And Bernd Dopp, Chairman and CEO, Warner Music Central Europe said:
“Warner Music Germany has had another great start into the year. I’m very pleased that Warner Music again even outperformed the market and contributed significantly to its growth.
“The performance of our domestic releases as diverse as Udo Lindenberg and Farid Bang have been responsible and, among various others, have been key in this market development. We are very optimistic that the second half will also prove strong for Warner Music and the market as a whole.”
[Pictured: Prince Damien, who had a No.1 hit in Germany in May with Glücksmoment]Music Business Worldwide
