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Report: Spotify overtakes iTunes in European royalty earnings for musicians as shift to music streaming continues

The latest evidence of the continued trend away from music downloads toward streaming services was provided by Kobalt, a company that collects music royalties on behalf of thousands of artists, reports TechCrunch. Income from Spotify overtook that from iTunes for the first time in Q1 of this year, putting Spotify 13% ahead of iTunes.

While Kobalt operates only in Europe, there is no reason to believe that the trend would be different in the U.S. … 

Apple does not split out music from apps and other media in its annual report, but did recently confirm a decline in music sales following an earlier WSJ report that put the drop at 14%.

Apple is expected to revitalize its music income by rebranding the Beats Music streaming service, with a rumored launch in February. The company is believed to be aiming for a subscription price of $5 per month – half that of the existing $9.99 cost. Apple is said to have arrived at the number based on its best customers spending an average of $60 a year on music downloads.

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Comments

  1. 89p13 - 9 years ago

    And is this why Apple paid (over-paid) for Beats?

  2. diososx - 9 years ago

    Us european customers are still wait fot iTunes Radio, maybe that could help….

  3. chrisl84 - 9 years ago

    Ya hear that Taylor Swift???

  4. Jim Phong - 9 years ago

    The music streaming fraud mafia… They want to destroy the market and kill Apple in the process… Music streaming is a really bad thing. It’s just like Adobe not selling their products but renting everything.

    • It’s actually nothing like that. Streaming music has always been good for consumers and now there’s some evidence that at least in one region, it’s good for artists as well. That’s fine if you prefer the old-fashioned way, but that doesn’t make streaming bad.

  5. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    $5 a month unlimited streaming from Apple, built into iTunes Radio and easy to purchase from the music store. Including iTunes Match as part of the subscription price would be great.

  6. lexxkoto - 9 years ago

    Somebody really doesn’t know how to make graphs. That’s not a great way to visualise that data, and those tail-offs at each end don’t make sense.

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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