(The Verge) – Illegal file-sharing has been an issue for over a decade, and the music industry has been hit hard as a result. Since file-sharing sites such as Napster launched in 1999, music sales have declined dramatically, with overall sales cut in half from ’99 to 2009. Despite these hard times, it seems that the music industry is starting to bounce back, with music sales seeing an increase last year as well as online piracy declining.
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reported that in 2012, global revenue of music sales increased by o.03 percent, or $16.5 billion. The main reason for this growth is the increase in digital sales and online subscriptions, rising by 9 percent and generating $5.6 billion. The number of people using online superscription based services, such as Spotify and MOG, has increased by 44 percent, totaling to 20 million people worldwide. Although these increases are fairly modest, this marks the first major sign of growth for the industry since 1999.
The top selling artist of 2012 was Carly Rae Jepsen, whose single “Call Me Maybe” sold 12.5 million units. Other high selling artists included Adele, with her 21 album moving 8.3 copies and Taylor Swift’s Red selling 5.2 million.
IFPI chief executive Frances Moore told the Hollywood Reporter, “It is hard to remember a year for the recording industry that has begun with such a palpable buzz in the air”.
As if this wasn’t good enough news for the music industry, The NPD group reported that illegal file-sharing saw a significant decline in 2012. The percentage of people age 13 and older downloading music from peer-to-peer sites dropped from 13 percent in 2011 to 11 percent last year. The amount of users downloading from P2P sites peaked in 2006 with one and five people, showing a steady decline. NPD also reported that there was a 26 percent decrease in 2012 of music file-sharing, and that the amount of people legally ripping and burning music onto CDs fell by 44 percent.
These reports are all possible signs that online piracy may become less of an issue in the future. With more legal streaming services like Netflix and Spotify making it simple and convenient to stream media, as well as major internet service providers rolling out anti-piracy plans, , there is a good chance that the amount of illegal file-sharing will continue to decrease. This is all good news for content creators, since it should result in better and cheaper products released on the internet without strict anti-piracy restrictions.
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