Artist’s earnings are soaring
Compared to what many people previously believed, musicians are not exactly suffering. From 2000 to 2008, revenues increased from SEK 786 million to SEK 1,058 million, an increase of 35% - as shown by extensive work carried out by KTH researchers.
Two researchers at KTH have now mapped out the Swedish music industry’s revenues since 2000. Not only the record companies’ profits have been analysed but also the promotion companies that arrange live events and copyright organisations that channel money to the artists.
Result: the Swedish music industry is doing very well. The artists, as groups, are earning better than ever.
According to Daniel Johansson, industrial doctoral student of computer science and research at KTH, the reason why artists have increased their revenues is because revenues from live shows have skyrocketed.
“Revenues have doubled. In addition, artists earn more on a percentage basis from live performances than they do from the sales of music, says Daniel Johansson.
New figures from the trade and industry associations IFPI and GLF also show that record sales have increased for the first time since 2001. Turnover increased by 18% during the nine months of 2009, and digital music sales took a giant leap upwards by 80%. This is compared with the same period last year.
According to Daniel Johansson, it is a combination of the Ipred Act, that the mobile telephone manufacturers have successfully succeeded in connecting together music services with their products and that Spotify has met with great success.
“Something has happened. The fact that live shows are about to produce a record year 2009 together with everything else, indicates that things are going extremely well for the Swedish music industry at the moment,” says Daniel Johansson.
Another area of the music industry that has been extremely successful is the copyright societies SAMI, IFPI, STIM and Copyswede.
“The copyright societies have received an increasingly significant role, their revenues have increased dramatically,” says Daniel Johansson.
He would also like to take the opportunity to point out that it is not impossible to determine the role of file sharing in this context.
“In our research findings there is no evidence whatsoever that the artists have benefited from illegal file sharing,” says Daniel Johansson.
There are many indications that the situation in the world as a whole looks like it does in Sweden.
“A similar study has been conducted in England, with roughly the same results. I believe that the situation is more or less the same throughout the rest of the world, says Daniel Johansson.
Peter Larsson