MADRID: Spain’s recording industry registered moderate growth for the third year in a row in 2016 as the digital business surpasses the physical market for the first time. The market earned €163.7 million from the sale of music last year – up 1.67%, or just €3.5m, on 2015.
In 2014, Spain’s recorded music market was up 11% and in 2015, that reduced to 7%. The country’s annual recorded music revenues dropped by a shocking 80.2% between 2001 and 2013, down from €626.1m to €123.7m.
But in the last three years, something a fightback has taken hold – predominantly thanks to the rapid growth of streaming. Good news, but let’s look at the below and stay realistic: 2016’s tally were still less than half that generated just a decade previously.
Spain’s digital business exceeded €100m in 2016, and now represents 61% of the market, according to new stats from local sales monitor ProMusicae. Paying streaming subscribers in the market have now passed 1m, confirmed the trade body.
Annual subscription revenues increased 37.4%, up to €62.2m, while free ad-supported streaming rose 24.7% to 25.3m. The digital sector went from €79.6m to €100.2m – a rise of almost 26%.
In 2015, Spain ended with a 51%/49% physical/digital split. Income generated by sales of CDs and vinyl exceeded €63.5m in 2016 as 38.8% of revenue came from traditional music shops.
More than 8.5m discs were sold in Spain last year, most of them in CD format. Vinyl consumption rose 19.6% to 433,000 vinyl records sold, compared to 362k the year before.
