GWI Trends: The Rise of Streaming

To mark the recent release of our new trend on the Rise of Streaming, today’s post focuses on one of the central issues facing the music industry: downloading appears to be in falling in popularity.

Although sales of digital downloads were rising until mid-2013, GWI’s research shows that paid-for music downloading has now begun to experience a gentle decline. What’s more, fewer and fewer internet users say that they would consider purchasing one.

So, does streaming represent the stronger future model? To date, paid-for streaming services have overtaken downloads in only 3 of GWI’s markets. However, 8 in 10 internet users now say they have streamed music in some form, while half say they would rather sign up for a membership to a product/service than pay extra to own it. In this context, the future seems good for Spotify and Beats Music.

For detailed exploration of this topic, you can download our new trend on Streaming here.