Not only streaming subscriptions are becoming increasingly popular, as they have been in recent years. Vinyl records are also gaining in popularity, while sales of CDs are falling. This was announced by the Association of the Austrian Music Industry on Tuesday.
8.6 billion songs streamed
The turnover with the streaming offers from Spotify, Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Co. increased by 20 percent to almost 82 million euros and thus dominates the Austrian music market with a market share of 83 percent. The growing popularity of music streaming in Austria is reflected in the 8.6 billion streamed songs in the first half of the year, which is an increase of 18 percent compared to the previous year.
Vinyl is catching up on what CD loses
The demand for vinyl records will continue unabated in the first half of 2023. Sales of the cult product increased by 17 percent to 5.4 million euros, which already means a market share of 5.5 percent. With a minus of 10 percent, CDs achieved sales of only 8.4 million euros this year. Overall, the physical presents itself music market stable in Austria, with only a small minus of one percent. The decline in CDs is almost completely compensated for by the increasing sales of vinyl records.
Metallica and Taylor Swift topped album sales charts
At the top of the album charts in the first half of 2023 are the eleventh studio album by the band Metallica “72 Seasons” and “Midnights” by American singer Taylor Swift. The Austrian rapper RAF Camora occupies two places in the top ten. The 2023 New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic with Franz Welser-Möst came in eleventh and just barely missed the top 10 best-selling albums in the first half of the year.
The most successful artists and their albums:
Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” is the most successful song
With her hit “Flowers”, Miley Cyrus delivers the most successful song of the first six months of 2023 in Austria, followed by Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207 with “Komet” and David Guetta & Bebe Rexha with “I’m Good (Blue)”. The most successful Austrian song “All Night” by RAF Camora & Luciano took 13th place.
AI is also a challenge in the music industry
Franz Medwenitsch, Managing Director of the Association of the Austrian Music Industry says: “After difficult years, the music market again, in Austria and also internationally. At the same time, we are facing the next big challenge with AI-generated music – legally, economically and also culturally. Original man-made music must not be devalued, because the income from protected works is and remains the most important incentive for creative work.”
New policies have an impact
Within the streaming market, advertising-financed audio offerings (+ 37 percent) and paid music video subscriptions (+ 28 percent) are growing at a disproportionately high rate, albeit with comparatively low sales. The improved legal protection as a result of the EU Copyright Directive is also having an impact on the music market. With this intensively discussed directive, the EU made it clear that the large online platforms bear copyright responsibility and must acquire licenses for protected content. In relation to the – also in Austria – immensely high income from the platforms YouTube, Meta, TikTok and Co., the license income of the domestic music industry is still at a low level of around six million euros in the first half of 2023.
Source: Nachrichten
