The German recorded music business dipped by 0.8% year-on-year in the first half of 2014, mainly thanks to a slow market during the spring.
The Bundesverband Musikindustrie (German Federal Music Industry Association – BVMI) reports that revenues from physical and digital music sales totalled 656 million euros in the first six months of 2014 – around four million euros less than in the first half of 2013.
The CD format generated two-thirds (65.6%) of total music revenues in the German market, with sales declining by 3.6% year-on-year.
Subscription-based and advertising-funded music streaming leapt up 77%, and now accounts for 7.7 percent of the German music market.
Vinyl grew by 34.5% compared to the first half of 2013, and increased its market share to 2.4%.
Sales of music videos, physical singles and music cassettes all continued to decline (-10.4%, -31.2% and -39.3% respectively), with the cassette now no longer playing any accountable role in the music scene after marking its 50th anniversary last year.
Revenues from the digital music grew by 7.5% to 174 million euros. With a revenue share of 26.5%, digital sales accounted for more than a quarter of turnover in the German music business. Even though revenues from downloads fell for the first time (-7.1%) they remain the second most important revenue in the German music industry, with a share of 18.6%.
Dr Florian Drücke, Managing Director of BVMI, said: “We’re seeing a comparatively stable overall market development in Germany, with the CD continuing to play a decisive role. Unlike in other countries, consumption of music in Germany is shifting to the digital world at a more moderate pace.
“A glance abroad in particular shows that there is not one way the digital transformation takes place, but that the variety of music formats in the market is the convincing factor. Fortunately the current dynamics in the German market occur without serious effects. A return to sustainable growth not only depends on the further development of legal offers and the shift in Germans’ usage habits, but above all from the marketplace marred by countless unlicensed free offers in the digital realm finally becoming a fair marketplace.”
The top 10 selling albums in Germany in the six months contained the highest proportion of German-language music ever recorded, according to GFK data, at 90%. Ghost Stories by Coldplay was the only non-German album in the Top 10 at No.9:
- “Farbenspiel” (Helene Fischer, pictured)
- “King” (Kollegah)
- “Wenn das so ist” (Peter Maffay)
- “Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert (Xavier Naidoo)
- “Zum Glück in die Zukunft II” (Marteria)
- “Sonny Black” (Bushido)
- “Best of” (Helene Fischer)
- “Best of Unheilig 1999-2014” (Unheilig)
- “Ghost Stories” (Coldplay)
- “MTV Unplugged Kahedi Radio Show” (Max Herre)
Music Business Worldwide
