The music business has been hit by disruption for at least a decade – however, the digital themes remain consistent: digital revenues rise, but continue to fail to offset the loss of physical revenues; streaming services continue to struggle to post profits despite their growth and many artists continue to mistrust these services; last but not least, licensing remains a contentious issue and something of a minefield. The thing is, people listen to music more than ever before: why such a disconnect?
This potential for disruption and the global interest for music have at least one positive consequence: investors’ appetite for backing music-related startups, IP companies and apps. As StrategyEye found out:
– In the past five years venture capital investment in digital music startups has steadily increased;
– More big deals are likely to occur in 2015 and there are rumours that Spotify is near to completing a funding round that could be as large as half a million dollars;
– The downloads vs streaming debate is shifting to a freemium vs subscriptions battle, with the likes of Spotify and Deezer in one corner and Tidal and Apple’s imminent service launch in the other.
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