71% of All Music Listening Is Now Free, Study Estimates

Today's listening sources:

(gray/black = primarily free format / green = primarily paid format)

Source: British Phonographic Industry (BPI), Entertainment Retail Association (ERA), n=1,000

Even formats commonly regarded as paid are predominantly free. In the case of downloads, the BPI earlier estimated that 95% of all song downloads are unpaid and illegally acquired, an estimate that doesn’t even consider songs ripped from CDs.

In another recent study, Nielsen found that roughly 52% of all music spending is now going to live concerts, with free streaming on platforms like YouTube often a teaser to purchase concert tickets. That is crowning huge winners like Live Nationand AEG Live, while forcing continued problems for major labels over-invested in pre-recorded music.

It’s also creating massive pressure for overwhelmingly free platforms like SoundCloud andSpotify. Just recently, SoundCloud announced that a paid, subscription-based service would be arriving within a year...

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