User:GoldenChamp/sandbox

(Sandbox) = The Impact of Music in the 21st Century: The Economic Influence =

Digital Music Sales
In the modern day of music, sales are moving more and more towards digital sales, making up 45% of music sales in 2016, and increasing by 10.2% between 2014 and 2015. The age group that buys the highest percent of digital music are those age 12-17, with a study showing that about 32% of people in this age group buy digital music. Outside of downloads, streaming is another digital option. It’s less likely to attract pirating, as many music streaming services, such as Pandora or Spotify, are free anyways, and make revenue through ads and premium service s. However, these also make overall less profit than do actual sales transactions, making up only about 4% of total global annual music revenue.

Despite all of the legal options, 95% of digital music sales are still unauthorized, with other digital music sales still making up 45% of all music sales in 2016. While this may be great for consumers, and many argue that it hardly impacts music industry profits, it’s a major problem for many music producers and writers as far as profit goes. Unlike other free sources like streaming or radio, it doesn’t help advertise a musical group, as people usually only see the music they are looking to download. Again, this brings back the idea of streaming. While streaming may be less profitable than actual sales, bringing in only 4% of total global annual music revenue, focusing more on streaming could help decrease the number of of illegal music downloads by distracting from that option.

Money as a Driving Factor in Music Creation
The music industry is home to some of the biggest lawsuits in entertainment, like The Turtle’s $40 million lawsuit on SiriusXM, or Taylor Swift’s lawsuit against Apple just for holding back royalty payments for 90 days during their free trial period. Clearly, the profit made by music is an important factor to consider. Producers and writers alike look to get as much profit from their work as possible.