Audio streaming overtakes the CD
In the first half of 2018, audio streaming (+35.2%) overtook CDs and is now the largest sales segment with a 47.8% market share - as it already is in other markets.
CDs have been the dominant music format since the end of the 1980s. It now has a market share of 34.4% and sales have fallen by 24.5% compared to the first half of 2017. Downloads also continued to decline (-23.4%) and now have a market share of just 8.5%. For the first time since 2006, vinyl records also recorded losses, currently contributing 4.4% to total sales with a drop of 13.3%. The only growth segment apart from audio streaming is video streaming, which increased by 27.2% and now accounts for 2.2% of total sales.
As a result, the ratio of physical to digital business has now reversed in the first half of 2018 compared to the previous year: physical sound carriers (CD, DVD, vinyl LP) account for 41.1 percent, while digital business accounts for 58.9 percent.
In the first six months of the current year, the German music industry generated a total turnover of 727 million euros. Compared to the same period last year (first half of 2017: sales of 742 million euros), revenue from music sales fell by two percent.
