Streaming services are growing in Finland while the rest of the music industry shrinks
HELSINKI: Music streaming in Finland is becoming widely popular nowadays and the new data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry shows a breakdown of where the money in Finland’s music industry comes from.
Finland has become the latest European country to fall in love with music streaming, Music Business Worldwide reports.
Overall, Finland’s music industry had a bad year, with income down 14% to €35.9 million.
But streaming sites actually grew in 2014. Music Business Worldwide reports that streaming sites saw a 19.6% rise in industry-wide revenues to €13.8 million, and they now make up 51% of Finland’s recorded music sales.
That rise is a big contrast to other kinds of music sales. Overall physical music sales fell by 33.8% to €17.1 million, and CD sales fell by 28.8% to €2.5 million. Similarly, download sales collapsed too: income there was down 29.2% to €2.02 million. People aren’t buying or downloading music anymore — they’re streaming it instead.
There’s another niche part of the music industry that’s on the rise: Vinyl. IFPI data shows that vinyl unit sales increased 13.6% in Finland, a contrast to the decline in physical music sales.
Finland’s music industry is following the same pattern as Sweden and Norway. Streaming dominates the market there too, accounting for 80% of income from recorded music in Sweden. Norway is also in love with streaming, and piracy in the country has collapsed following the rise of streaming services.
