The Music Business
From Vinyl to Streaming
How music formats changed from records to cassettes, CDs, piracy, downloads and streaming, and how each shift reshaped industry revenues.
Music formats have transformed the industry repeatedly.
The format timeline
- Vinyl records: dominant until the 1970s.
- Cassettes: portable and cheap from the 1970s-80s.
- CDs: the 1990s boom.
- Piracy: Napster (1999) let users share MP3s free.
- Downloads: iTunes (2003) sold songs for about a dollar.
- Streaming: Spotify (2008) and others.
The revenue collapse
Global recorded music revenue fell by around 40 percent between around 1999 and 2014 as piracy spread and CD sales collapsed.
The streaming recovery
From 2015, streaming subscriptions drove revenues back up, surpassing the old peak in nominal terms in the early 2020s.
Vinyl revival
Vinyl sales have grown again among collectors, a niche but notable trend.
Economic lesson
New technology can destroy old business models, but new models can emerge to monetise demand again.
In 2002, a student downloaded thousands of songs free. In 2022, the same person pays a monthly subscription for unlimited legal streaming.
Streaming helped revenues recover after the piracy collapse.
- Formats moved from vinyl to cassettes, CDs, downloads and streaming.
- Piracy caused a steep revenue fall after 1999.
- Streaming drove a recovery from 2015.
- Vinyl has had a niche revival.
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