Spanish Music Market Grows By 6,9%

Earlier this month Promusicae, the Spanish IFPI branch, reported a 6,9% growth in Spain’s recorded music market. That makes 2015 the second year in a row of market growth in Spain, after a long and dark decline lasting 12 years.

The total worth of the recorded music market in Spain in 2015 is accounted to app. 160.2 million euro, compared to 149.9 million in 2014. The same numbers for 2014 in Denmark were around 150 million and in Germany, Europe’s biggest music market, the recorded music industry was worth 1.5 billion euro in 2015. So why does a this huge increase in a relatively small market matter?

According to Promusicae, the Spanish recorded music market peaked at a value of around 600 million euro in 2001. After that, illegal downloads and economic recession took it’s toll on the Spanish music consumption habits and the market was in decline for 12 years. 2014 was the first year that saw positive figures again, and now it appears to be a trend.

Streaming in Spain went up by 25% in 2015, resulting in digital standing for 49.4% of the market share, as physical went down by 6.7%. Interestingly, the most popular form of streaming seems to be subscription services. According to Promusicae, it’s partly because of the launch of Apple’s own streaming service, which allowed the country’s many Apple users to continue using the products and services theyn are already accustomed to.

Streaming accounts for 82% of digital revenue and out of that 65% comes from subscription services and only 35% from ad based services. During the past year, subscribers increased by 35%, surpassing half a million subscribers (Spain has a population of about 47 million).

See the full report by Promusicae here.