Good news: SoundExchange wants to get your money in your pockets a little bit faster. Users can now expect to receive payments monthly—as opposed to the old quarterly practice the company used in years passed.
Starting this month, digital music performing rights organization SoundExchange moves from quarterly to monthly payments to artists, labels and rights owners signed up to receive electronic payments. SoundExchange is the first music performance rights organization in the world to offer monthly distributions. Some PROs in other countries pay annually.
SoundExchange, which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary, has paid out more than $2 billion to rightsholders from 2,000 digital music services ranging from Pandora to SiriusXM . Initially, monthly royalty payments will be sent to members that receive electronic payments, and have royalties due of at least $250. Artists and labels that do not meet the threshold will continue to be paid quarterly.
One thing about the music industry is that it likes to be comfortable. Life was so easy for about 50 years as the way business was conducted hardly ever changed. The label found an act, made a record, sold it to retail and promoted it through radio. Publishers and songwriters went to the mailbox and collected their checks. Boy, are those days over.
Just about the time the industry was getting used to digital downloads as the center of its financial universe, the business model is changing once again as streaming becomes the consumption method of choice for music lovers everywhere. The genie’s out of the bottle, the cows are out the barn, and the music files are off the hard drive.
Nielsen SoundScan’s numbers for 2013 now show that streaming was up 32 percent, while digital download sales were down about 6 percent. Folks, from this point on this disparity will continue to grow, and by leaps and bounds I might add, and you can take that to the bank.
Once again, let’s state the obvious – people prefer convenience when it comes to technology, and streaming is so much more convenient than any other type of music consumption method that there’s no contest. You’re going to see streaming explode for real in 2014, and those SoundScan numbers are going to look pretty small when we look back this time next year.
There are many in the industry weeping and gnashing their teeth today over this prospect, especially artists and songwriters, but they needn’t be. What we just witnessed was actually a good thing for all concerned.
The revenue from the 6 percent shortfall of about 80 million digital downloads was easily made up by the more than 118 billion streams of last year, which by my calculations should have generated somewhere around $500 million in revenue. That more than offsets the $80 million of lost revenue from the downloads and should mean that the industry is actually ahead of last year totals, if that revenue fell to the bottom line (no guarantee there).
This isn’t just a phenomenon common to the United States. The UK is also reporting huge streaming increases, with a total of 7.4 billion tracks streamed in 2013 that was double that of the previous year. Streaming in that country was also worth $169 million last year, good for 10 percent of recorded music sales, according to the British Phonograph Industry trade association.
When you consider that we’ve only just scratched the surface of potential streaming users, you can figure those numbers to grow substantially starting now. What’s more, on-demand streaming services like Spotify and Slacker grew by 102 percent, which is a good sign since they generate more money for the copyright holders than radio-like services like Pandora and iTunes Radio.
With Deezer coming to the States soon, and new services from Beats and YouTube expected to be introduced shortly, it’s easy to see how this side of the streaming business will be able to grow at a faster rate (not to mention generate more income) than radio-like services, which pay less than half-as much.
In a future post I’ll provide a financial roadmap of how streaming can actually be the source of some much-needed prosperity for a music industry badly in need of it.
Digital music sales for 2013 were up in Canada from the previous year, according to a year-end report released today by Nielsen SoundScan. Digital album sales rose 9% from 2012, moving 11.4 million units from 10.5 million, while digital track sales were up 2% with 116.1 million units from 114.3 million. The trend stands in stark contrast to the U.S. where for the first time digital sales declined as tracks fell some 5.7% in 2013.
The data is compiled for the 52-week period from Dec. 31, 2012 to Dec. 29, 2013.
Total album sales (CDs, CS, LP, digital), however, were down 6% with 29.3 million units over 31.3 million. Overall album sales (defined as all albums and track equivalent albums) were also down with a final tally of 40.9 million vs. 42.7 million, a difference of 4%. Not surprisingly, physical album sales also dropped a further 15%, selling 17.6 million units over 20.6 million in 2012.
Universal Music Group, in terms of label market share for catalogue and current titles, was the leader with 46.20% of the music market, which was up from 2012’s 37% following the label’s acquisition and integration of EMI. Sony Music Entertainment followed with 22.31%, up from 20.08% and Warner Music Group with 13.48%, up from 13.35%, while “others,” meaning independent labels, made up the balance of 18.01% down from 19.96%. The market share order is the same for current albums, catalogue albums, digital albums and digital tracks with UMG leading all categories.
Eminem had the year’s top selling album and was the year’s best selling artist. His “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” led the Top Ten Selling Albums tally with 242,000 units sold; Celine Dion’s “Loved Me Back To Life” followed with 231,000; and Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions” came in third with 179,000. The top three of the Top Selling Artists were Emnem with 365,000 units sold, Celine Dion with 304,000 and Michael Buble with 256,000.
Meanwhile Robin Thicke, much as in the U.S. year-end tally, had the top selling song of the year. His “Blurred Lines” was the top Digital Track selling 692,000 units followed by Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” at No. 2 with 519,000 and Pink’s “Just Give Me A Reason” which sold 499,000 units.
The top three artists on the Top Ten Selling Digital Songs chart — which combines all versions of the same song — were Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” with his record-breaking 706,000 units (the previous record for most downloads in a calendar year was Gotye in 2012 with 639,000 for “Somebody That I Used To Know”), Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” with 554,000 and Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” at 523,000.
The Imagine Dragons had the Top Ten Selling Digital Album of 2013 selling 100,000 units of “Night Visions” followed by Eminem with 87,000 units sold of “The Marshall Mathers LP2” and The Lumineers with 80,000 units of their self-titled album.
The leading three artists on the Top Ten Physical CDs chart were Celine Dion for “Loved Me Back To Love,” which sold 208,000 units; Eminem who sold 150,000 units of The “MMLP2;” and Michael Buble who moved 116,000 units of “To Be Loved.”
Celine Dion’s “Loved Me Back To Life” was the year’s No. 1 Top Ten Album by a Canadian Artists for 2013 with 231,000 units sold. She was followed by: Michael Buble’s “To Be Loved” with 139,000, Drake’s “Nothing Was The Same” at 108,000, Johnny Reid’s “A Christmas Gift To You” with 106,000, Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor” at 101,000, Serena Ryder’s “Harmony” with 74,000, City And Colour’s “The Hurry And The Harm” with 66,000, Hedley’s “Wild Life” with 64,000, and Michael Buble’s “Christmas” and Justin Bieber’s “Believe Acoustic,” tied with 61,000.
Robin Thicke — who holds dual citizenship because his father Alan is Canadian — led 2013’s Top Ten Digital Songs by Canadian Artists for “Blurred Lines,” which sold the aforementioned 706,000 units. Not a close second was Classified feat. David Miles with 357,000 units of “Inner Ninja.” Serena Ryder followed with 229,000 for “Stompa,” Drake moved 207,000 units of “Hold On, We’re Going Home,” Hedley sold 195,000 units of “Anything” and Armin Van Buuren feat. Trevor Guthrie sold 189,000 units of “This Is What It Feels Like.”
Other data collected: holiday season album sales (physical and digital) were down 9.5% with 7.2 million units sold vs. 8 million, calculated between Nov. 4 and Dec. 29.
The genre leader for 2013 album sales was alternative with 4,977,000, a dip of 8% from 2012’s 5,392,000.
The latest episode of Digital Music Trends features Sebastian Dittman, one of the creators of Audiobus, discussing the state of the iOS routing technology:
Audiobus is an iOS app that enables app-to-app audio, allowing users to route an audio signal from one app to another so that you can – for example – play on the Korg iMS-20 synth app as Garageband records in the background. Hundreds of music making apps are now Audiobus enabled and there is a vast community growing around the company’s forums.
Digital Music Trends is a video podcast create by Andrea Leonelli. You can see more episodes at the DMT site.
After a one-week vacation from the top slot on the Billboard 200 chart, Beyonce is heading back to No. 1.
The diva’s self-titled set could sell around 85,000 to 90,000 copies by the end of the tracking week on Sunday, Jan. 12, according to industry forecasters. If it returns to No. 1, it will mark the fourth non-consecutive week atop the list for “Beyonce.”
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Meanwhile, the current chart champ, the soundtrack to Disney’s “Frozen” movie, will probably dip to No. 2 with around 75,000.
The “Frozen” set stormed to No. 1 this past week on the chart, selling 165,000 copies in the week ending Jan. 5, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It bumped “Beyonce” out of the No. 1 position after a three-week reign.
The top 10 of next week’s Billboard 200 chart will be revealed on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
The highest new entry on next week’s list will likely be rapper Kid Ink’s major label full-length album, “My Own Lane,” with around 40,000 or so. That should place it around No. 3 on the chart. It should be the only debut in the top 10 next week.
The rest of the top 10 should be populated with holdovers by the likes of Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” (maybe 35,000), Lorde’s “Pure Heroine” (30,000) and One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” (25,000).
On SoundScan’s Building chart (below), “Beyonce” leads at No. 1, while Kid Ink and the “Frozen” soundtrack are Nos. 2 and 3, respectively. The Building tally is a precursor to the final Billboard 200 ranking — reflecting the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan’s tracking week as reported by six major merchants.
As for the rest of the top 10: Eminem, Lorde and One Direction are Nos. 4-6, while Katy Perry’s “PRISM” is No. 7. Miley Cyrus’ “Bangerz” is No. 8, Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions” is No. 9 and Drake’s “Nothing Was the Same” rounds out the Building Chart’s top 10 at No. 10.
NIELSEN SOUNDSCAN BUILDING CHART
Rank LW
BB 200 Artist Title
1 2 Beyonce “Beyonce”
2 NEW Kid Ink “My Own Lane”
3 1 Soundtrack “Frozen”
4 3 Eminem “The Marshall Mathers LP 2”
5 5 Lorde “Pure Heroine”
6 6 One Direction “Midnight Memories”
7 4 Katy Perry “PRISM”
8 13 Miley Cyrus “Bangerz”
9 10 Imagine Dragons “Night Visions”
10 15 Drake “Nothing Was the Same”
The Building Chart reflects the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan’s tracking week (which ends Sunday) as reported by six major merchants: iTunes, Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Starbucks, Target and Anderson Merchandisers. Billboard estimates that they make up about 85% of all U.S. album sales.
