Germany increased streaming by 27% in 2019 with an overall increase in revenue for the year of 8.2% according to figures released by the BVMI, the German record industry association. Total revenue for the year came to €1.623 Bn. After two years of minimal decline in 2017 and 2018, the fourth largest music market in the world followed the positive global trend of the past few years in 2019. Several factors contributed to this growth – the significant rise of streaming (+27.0%), a decline in sales of CDs that was almost halved (-10.5%) compared to the previous year, and a 13.3% increase in sales of vinyl records. Audio streaming as the leading market segment now accounts for 55.1% of total revenues, followed by CDs (29.0%), downloads (6.2%) and vinyl (4.9%).
Overall, 64.4% of revenues last year were generated by digital media (+20.8%) and 35.6% by physical products (-8.9%).
Pop remains the largest music genre with a 25.8% share. Hip hop/rap moved into second place with a share of 19.7% just ahead of rock (19.6%). Children’s products and Dance made up fourth and fifth place with a share of 9.8% and 7.3% respectively.
Dr. Florian Drücke, BVMI Chairman & CEO, said, “2019 was a very good year, we are seeing the largest increase in revenues in a very long time, which illustrates the dynamic market in which the industry currently finds itself. Two-thirds of the business has now shifted to digital, audio streaming alone accounts for more than half of the industry’s revenues. The digital market has been successfully developed and lead to growth in recent years without losing sight of the physical product: The CD remains an important and not to be underestimated market segment with almost one third of total sales, while vinyl continues to grow in its niche.”
