Streaming success and a ringtone revival help power the music industry to new heights

Forget the vinyl revival - now it’s the return of the ringtone with music industry statistics showing a rise in the numbers of us personalising music for our mobiles.

Figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) showed increases across the board in almost every format with the global recorded music market growing by 9% last year.

The only format to fall back was downloads which have been overtaken by streaming apart from ringtones which account for the majority of what the industry calls “mobile personalisation” which grew by 12.2%.

The industry body’s annual report showed total trade revenues were around £21.5 billion with streaming accounting for around two thirds (67%) of that with around 589 million people using paid subscription accounts while physical formats such as CDs and vinyl took 17.5% of the overall market.

IFPI Chief Executive Frances Moore said: “This year’s report tells the continued story of record companies’ commitment to their core mission – working with artists to help them achieve their greatest creative and commercial potential over the course of a career. That requires an artist-label partnership that constantly evolves and innovates so that it can capitalise on opportunities in more business areas and more parts of the world.

“Record companies’ investment and innovation has helped make music even more globally interconnected than ever, building out local teams around the world, and working with artists from a growing variety of music scenes. This is driving music’s development whilst enabling fans to seize the expanding opportunities to embrace and celebrate their own local artists and culture.

“However, as the opportunities for music continue to expand, so too do the areas in which record companies must work to ensure that the value of the music artists are creating is recognised and returned. This challenge is becoming increasingly complex as a greater number of actors seek to benefit from music whilst playing no part in investing in and developing it.”