The Recording Industry Association of America (RIIA) has released figures on the US music industry’s 2015 earnings.
Revenue is up overall, but CEO Cary Sherman has levelled criticism at some stream services.
“The consumption of music is skyrocketing, but revenues for creators have not kept pace,” Sherman said in a statement. “In 2015, fans listened to hundreds of billions of audio and video music streams through on-demand ad-supported digital services like YouTube, but revenues from such services have been meager — far less than other kinds of music services.”
To demonstrate, the combined revenue from ad-funded free streams from sites like YouTube and Spotify’s free tier came in at $385 million. Vinyl sales alone, generated $416 million. Even accounting for the resurgence in wax, the number of people listening to each format is vastly different.
“This is why we, and so many of our music community brethren, feel that some technology giants have been enriching themselves at the expense of the people who actually create the music,” Sherman continues. “We call this the “value grab” — because some companies take advantage of outdated, market-distorting government rules and regulations to either pay below fair-market rates, or avoid paying for that music altogether.”