The German music industry grew once again in the first six months of the year. Germany's Federal Music Industry Association (BVMI) announced today that revenue from the sale of CDs, vinyl and downloads, along with increasing use of streaming services, increased by a total of 2.9 percent in comparison to the same period in 2016.
The industry generated a total turnover of roughly €740 million ($853 million) in the first half of 2017, which is €20 million ($23 million) more than in the first six months last year. BVMI represents 250 music industry labels and companies with more than 80 percent of the German music market.
Bucking trends seen in other territories, CDs remained the strongest format with a market share of 44.7 percent.
They were followed by audio streaming, which was able to further expand its share and become the industry’s second strongest segment: record companies generated 34.7 percent of sales by means of revenue from premium subscriptions and ad-financed access to music via providers such as Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Unlimited or Napster. This growth marks a 10.3 percent increase compared to the first half of 2016 (24.4 percent).
Downloads achieved a sales share of 11 percent, while vinyl continued to grow and now has a market share of 5 percent. The upward trend in audio streaming garnered the digital music sector an increase of 21.8 percent compared to the first half of 2016.
"The market distribution has changed its profile once again: 52.5 percent of sales are still being made with physical recordings, while 47.5 percent now come from digital music sales," said BVMI Managing Director Dr. Florian Drücke today in Berlin.
