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Some optimism about Australian and German record industries
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009
Good news people, trade bodies representing both Australia and Germany’s record industries reckon things are looking up after several years of doom, gloom and sliding record sales.
New stats from the Australian Recording Industry Association show that the record business there grew slightly in the first half of the year as growth in digital started to exceed the decline in physical CD sales. Although only small growth – about 0.4% – it is enough to bring smiles to the faces of top guys at some Australian music firms. ARIA chairman and Warner Music Australia chief Ed St John told reporters: “What we’re seeing is the first tentative evidence of a return to growth”, while adding that there was room for further optimism because of a strong release schedule in the final quarter. He said: “Retailers are telling us this could be the best music Christmas in years, with products for every possible demographic. Music, and the music industry, is proving very resilient in these challenging times”.
In Germany things aren’t quite so glowy just at the moment, but the CEO of the country’s record label trade body, the Federal Association Of The Music Industry – that’ll be Stefan Michalk – says there is room for optimism there also. Based on market research by GfK, Michalk says there is an appetite for emerging digital services – including iTunes albums, subscription-style Spotify and music access bundled into ISP packages – so much so the record industry could start to grow again as of 2013. Needless to say, physical sales will continue to decline and digital revenues will continue to grow – but more importantly the growth of the latter should start to exceed the decline of the former within five years.
Though, Michalk was keen to stress, that optimistic forecast for the German music market does depend on political and internet types in the country doing something to combat file-sharing. As previously reported, German record companies are pushing for Germany to follow the lead of France and to consider putting some kind of three-strikes system for combating online piracy onto the statute book, though the political will for such a move doesn’t seem to be as strong among the German political class as it is in France. Plus there’s an increasingly vocal Pirate Party in Germany, who are sure to speak out about any such moves.
Michalk told reporters: “Established streaming subscription services such as Napster are coming under price pressure from new providers, for example Spotify, Vivo and MySpace Music. Convergence of PC and cellphone-based download services: the different ways of purchasing music digitally will grow together for consumers in the future. This positive trend in the digital music market depends on the success of putting a stop to illegal competition. Today in Germany only one out of eight downloads is purchased legally”.
