ROME, Italy (CelebrityAccess) — While streaming and vinyl were both bright spots for the sector, growth in Italy's music market appears to have stalled, growing by just 0.4% in 2016.
Overall, the market was worth €149m in 2016, according to figures collected by accounting firm Deloitte for trade association Federation Industria Musicale Italiana, (FIMI).
The decline of physical product, which remains 54% of the overall market, was a contributing factor to the slow growth, falling off from last year's figures by 8%. The decline for digital downloads of music was even more precipitous, falling off by 24% from 2015.
Strong points for the market included vinyl, which, despite the overall slowing of physical product, increased its share by 52% of that segment, generating €10 million in revenues in 2016. Streaming was strongly up as well, with subscription services capturing 51% of the digital market and increasing their share of the market by 39.4% year-over-year, while ad-supported streaming revenue rose by 30%.
Notably, in the age of streaming as music becomes increasingly borderless, Italian repertoire continued to perform strongly in the market. Out of the top 20 best-selling albums in Italy for 2016, 17 were from Italian artists. – Staff Writers
