THE CHEAT SHEET. Ah, that’s music to my ears!

Music! It’s back in business.

If you’re not an alien on a visit, you’d know that the music industry globally was hitting all the wrong notes in the past decade.

Even though the recording industry’s digital revenues grew by 6.9 per cent in 2014 to $6.9 billion, matching the physical formats, piracy has been eating up a huge chunk of the revenues. One estimate says revenues of the industry fell from over $28 billion in 2000 to about $15 billion in 2014.

The rise and rise of streaming. On-demand music streaming has increased significantly across the globe, giving a fillip to the music industry. Two leading markets, the US and the UK, are rocking in online streaming.

According to the mid-year review by research firm Nielsen, the music market in the US saw a staggering surge in on-demand streaming between January and June this year. Americans streamed over 135 billion songs during this period — a nearly two-fold increase from the same period last year. Thanks to streaming, the report says, digital music consumption (sales and streams) grew 23 per cent despite a sizeable fall in song and album downloads.

Data from the Official Charts Company, which compiles reliable data on the music industry, show online music streaming, including subscription-based services, is up 80 per cent year-on-year, due to services such as Spotify, Deezer and Google Play. Stats show the Brits listened to over 11.5 billion streams in the past six months, against 14.8 billion for the whole of 2014. This works out to a 4 per cent lift in overall music consumption.

Music streaming is still in its nascent stage in the country, given its fledgling broadband infrastructure and high levels of digital music piracy. But the arrival of smartphones is changing the scenario. Just a few days ago, music streaming service Saavn raised $100 million (about ₹635 crore) from New York-based investment firm Tiger Global in its third round of funding.

Well, the company claims it will have 20 million monthly active users by the end of this year. In comparison, Spotify globally has 75 million monthly active users, of which 20 million are paid subscribers. Saavn is yet to reveal its paid user numbers, but it says the figure had gone up six times since 2014. It has users in about 150 countries and it boasts some seven million tracks.

To be frank, it’s too early. The success of streaming requires a few very important prerequisites, which India is yet to meet.

A strong broadband and satellite-based internet network, along with affordable data plans and music pricing.

Many expect with Reliance rolling out its 4G network Jio this year end (or whenever that happens), streaming of music as well as movies will hit a high note. Still, getting subscribers to pay is a tough ask.

To be fair, it’s a question of quality as well. As you may have noticed most of the illegally available music files are of low-quality; streaming firms hope they can provide high-quality music and retain customers.

The industry hopes competitive services such as Apple Music, with its reportedly low-cost, high-quality music streaming, can make a difference.

Interestingly, there’s a movement towards quality globally, reflected in the recent surge in vinyl records. In the UK, vinyl sales are up 56.3 per cent in 2015, and are likely to see their biggest total sales since 1994.

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