Story #75

http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/fcb-brazil-created-a-calculator-to-show-newspaper-readers-the-cost-of-government-corruption/

Story #75 "FCB Brazil Created a Calculator to Show Newspaper Readers the Cost of Government Corruption"

As the article states, the tool, which appears on the paper’s website, converts the amount of money each corruption scandal reported by the paper costs Brazilians, in terms of water, school lunches and vaccines. It lets readers calculate the benefits and services that could have been provided with the funds had they not been diverted because of corruption. As major U.S. media outlets like the New York Times, the Atlantic and Vanity Fair boost their marketing efforts to highlight the importance of journalism in turbulent political times, FCB Brazil is working with one newspaper in Brazil to help it do the same. The Brazilian media is hard at work exposing government corruption, as public services in the country are in a state of collapse. So, FCB Brazil created a tool for Brazilian newspaper O Estadão de São Paulo to show the cost of government corruption, in real-life terms.

Story #74

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/05/when-politicians-buy-the-newspaper-front-pages-fake-news-is-born/#

Story #74 "When politicians buy the newspaper front pages, they create fake news"

As the article states, newspapers everywhere are in trouble, with advertising revenues down about 20 per cent a year. Local newspapers are worst hit and many are on the brink of collapse, sacking staff and pages. But there can be no more depressing sign of their distress than to see newspaper owners selling front pages to political parties. The collapse of the print advertising market means that papers (especially local ones, who derive most of their income from advertising) have had to to go to ever-greater lengths to secure funding. Using the front page as advertising space is, in a way, a return to the days when every newspaper had small adverts on their front page. But now, a single client can pay for a front-page takeover. Usually, it’s glaringly obvious that it’s an advert: it will be for a car, perfume or somesuch.

Story #73

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-18/crinkling-news-saved-as-crowdfunding-target-reached/8536646

Story #73 "Crinkling News, Australia's only kids' newspaper, saved as $200k crowdfunding target reached"

As the article states, Australia's only kids' newspaper has raised enough funds to ensure its survival, at a time when print publications are struggling as advertising migrates online. Crinkling News reached its $200,000 crowdfunding target today, with just eight hours to go in the two-week campaign. Crinkling News has since seen growth in subscribers, and is posted out weekly to 800 schools with a readership of 30,000 people. However, the print publication was struggling to survive after running out of seed funding. On the crowdfunding page, the team said the paper was close to becoming a self-sustaining publication and just needed a boost to "take that final step".

Story #72

#Story 72 "Newspaper decline continues to weigh on AP earnings"

As the article states, NEW YORK (AP) — Earnings at The Associated Press shrank substantially last year compared with 2015, when the news organization enjoyed a large tax benefit that skewed its results. Revenue also edged downward, reflecting continued contraction in the newspaper industry and a stronger U.S. dollar that reduced the value of overseas sales. Net income last year shrank to $1.6 million from $183.6 million in 2015, a 99 percent decline. The 2015 profit figure was bolstered by a one-time, $165 million tax benefit. AP's 2014 net income of $140.9 million was also boosted by a large non-recurring gain from the sale of a stake in a sports data company. In 2013, net income at the AP — a not-for-profit news cooperative — was $3.3 million. 

• New York AP's net income last year shrank to $1.6 million from $183.6 million in 2015, a 99 percent decline

Story #71

Story #71 "Newspaper ad spend takes hit in April, dropping 26.3%"

As the article states, Australia’s media agency market is reporting a 6.8% decline in advertising expenditure in April 2017 to $501.9 million, with newspapers taking the biggest hit. According to preliminary figures from Standard Media Index (SMI), newspapers saw ad spend drop by 26.3% in April compared to the same period in 2016. The dramatic drop in revenue is a major driver of the cost-cutting initiatives currently underway at News Corp and Fairfax, with Fairfax recently axing 125 jobs from its editorial team. TV saw a smaller 6.6% fall year-on-year, with digital also dropping 9%, however data from the sector is usually revised later. Outdoor and radio both recorded 5.5% rises and cinema advertising climbed an impressive 32.9%.

• 6.8% decline in advertising expenditure 
• 125 jobs gone from editorial teams at News Corp and Fairfax
• 6.6% decline in TV
• Radio with 5.5% rise and cinema advertising with 32.9%

Section B essay attempt

'Does your case study suggest that new and digital media have had a positive impact by offering audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies?'

It is without a doubt that the new and digital media has had a substantial influence in how it offers audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies, therefore empowering them to an extent. The positive impact as a result is due to the audience demonstrating the ‘uses and gratifications’ of how they would use these particular products that new and digital media has offered them. It also means that both the media producers and audiences have a “supply and demand” relationship, as audiences may no longer remain passive but instead make use of what is being created by the media product. A prominent example is the user-generated content that enables the audience to look at the content and express their own opinions about it in social networks like Twitter for example. Other similar examples are when Apple’s music streaming service and social networks are a great combination in the sense that they support each other by spreading attraction to a particular music artist. 
User-generated content has had a positive impact as it has enabled the audience to view a “reality” of the things going around, and gives them an alternative option as opposed to consuming information from trusted news broadcasting companies such as BBC. This means that there is more freedom experienced by the audience as they have access to more diverse information that isn’t mediated and filtered usually for the public eye to see. An example includes the “#BlackLivesMatter” movement, where numerous UGC have been released on the Internet of prejudice and discriminatory cases against the black community. Footage such as Eric Garner’s death has kickstarted the ideology of #BLM as perhaps the audiences who identify as black individuals themselves have the urge to comment on this in respect to their own image. This demonstrates surveillance and a positive impact that the new and digital media has given them, as it allows the black community to speak out against police brutality and racism that still remains active in the status quo. Globalisation and the combination of the Internet has aided this spreading of #BLM’s awareness in the sense that it gives access to a wider range of audience, and as McLuhan mentions there is a “Global Village” of users across the globe who might see things from another perspective than what is conventionally believed. For example, another case of police brutality including Ian Tomlinson’s death, who was a victim to manslaughter was innocently battered as he wasn’t part of the protest that was taking place. The hegemonic view that the Metropolitan police in the UK are here to ‘Protect and Serve’ is obviously not the case as proven by the video footage, which again emphasises on how crucial UGC has on offering different ideologies than what is usually believed. In result, there is a positive impact due to the fact that there is justice being brought, as after an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, the officer, Simon Harwood, was prosecuted for manslaughter. Without the collective participation of the audience, simply put someone could have gotten away with murder. 
However, as much as there is a positive impact in shedding light by offering more diverse values and ideologies to certain situations in the media, it can also cause a false reading and a misinformation to the audience. For example, picking another case that fueled #BLM is Alton Sterling’s death. Alton Sterling a 37-year-old black man, was shot several times at close range while held down on the ground by two white Baton Rouge Police Department officers. When observing this case from one standpoint, it is a situation of racist police brutality as evident from video footage he was seen to be held down. Since then, there have been speculations about Sterling being armed with a gun which he apparently attempted to reach in his pocket as the person recording panned away. If this was the case, then the engagement of #BLM and parties against this specific case would be a product of misinformation as some audiences might have been too quick to judge on what plain sight they see it in. This kind of false reading in the media is usually on purpose or by mistake, commonly used to manipulate and support a particular agenda, which in this case is to empower and bring justice to the black community who have been treated unfairly by the law. 

This is a similar approach a Marxist for example would agree with; that new and digital media has actually damaged values and ideologies due to the fact of their belief that institutions have power over the consumption of their audiences. New and digital media has given an alternative method of surveillance to the audience, therefore meaning that the power doesn't necessarily all rely on institutions such as BBC presenting information to the public but the public actually proactively searching and consuming information as individuals. The other negative impacts associated as a result are also false information again. With the lack of gatekeeping, the information being released in the Internet is not certified and mediated, meaning there are increased chances of false information being spread or even the common case of fake news. An example of this was when Russian online news reported of Queen Elizabeth's death, The fake stories claimed the site published but then withdrew a story that the monarch had died. The alleged report on royal.uk was headlined 'Death of Queen Elizabeth II' - but was denied by Buckingham Palace to a leading Russian media outlet. This sort of announcements causes a moral panic among the audience as there is a distortion in what to believe and what not to believe. In some sense, hard news such as death of important figures and celebrities might even become desensitized in the sense that the audience might not take reports seriously. 

On the other hand, the audience certainly have more choice when it comes to choosing what media content they wish to view. That is what a pluralist would argue as they believe audiences are free to select and reject media content which they don’t believe offers them a certain set of values and ideologies. NDM has created a new platform for audiences to select and reject news content; this comes from social media sites, blogs and News institution websites like The Daily mail and The Guardian. Even though choice of news outlets may seem like it has been expanded online, a Marxist would argue against the pluralists perspective of audiences being free as a lot of the companies online like the social media sites are not independently owned but fall under an umbrella of companies, for example Facebook own Instagram; another social media site, and with total combined users reaching over a billion what seems like a platform that offers audiences a more diverse range of values and ideologies actually has a negative impact as the content is both regulated and controlled to the specifications of the parent organisation. This can be better explained with Pareto’s Law and this states that the minority of media producers, produce content for the majority of people, therefore masking the absence of a diverse range of values and ideologies.

Story #70

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2017/jan/19/popular-newspapers-suffer-greater-circulation-falls-than-qualities

"Popular newspapers suffer greater circulation falls than qualities"

As the article states, the latest set of ABC figures for national newsprint sales may not be too surprising in that they confirm a long-running downward trend in the popular and mid-market sectors. The article describes that The Daily Express for example went from selling an average copy of 391,226 in December 2016, down by 2.3% on the same month, and that the cut-price Daily Star (which boasts every day of being 20p cheaper than the 50p Sun), was down by 2.5% to 440,471. Of course, the online readership have offset the loss of print readers. According to a Newsworks press release, national newspapers jointly enjoyed a 16% year-on-year uplift across digital platforms, giving them a total of 31.5m unique browsers daily across the month of December 2016.

• The Daily Mirror was the largest year-on-year faller, down by 11.7% to an average daily sale of just 716,923 copies.
•  The Sun went down by 10.5% to 1,611,464. 
• The Daily Mail lost 6.7% of it's headline per year
• Daily Star Sunday: 257,790 (-13.2%); Sunday Mirror: 620,861 (-16.3%); Sunday People: 239,364 (-15.1%); Sun on Sunday: 1,383,048 (-5.83%); Sunday Express: 335,271 (-5.6%); and Mail on Sunday: 1,284,121 (-7.34%)

Story #69

http://fortune.com/2016/12/05/social-media-ad-spending-newspapers-zenith-2020/

"Social Media Ad Spending Is Expected to Pass Newspapers by 2020"

The article addresses how the amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, as leading forecaster said. There is discussion about how the rapid expansion of the digital age has lead to a huge change in the way how consumers get their news through more convenience via the world wide web. Consumers are targeting themselves to much easier and "lazier" ways of getting information which just so happens to be from the Internet, leaving no room for newspapers which require money, plus the need to read.

• global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20% of all internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads
•  It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020
• global advertising expenditure will grow 4.4% in 2017, the same rate as in 2016, which it said would be a strong performance given that big events like the Olympic Games, Britain's EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election boosted advertising this year
• Online video advertising is also rapidly growing and set to total $35.4 billion across the world by 2019

Case Study Summaries

Class case study summaries: 

Ladan - Social network Twitter

Twitter's 140 character limit simplifies politician's expression

Mentioning of "Black Twitter", where #BlackLivesMatter is popularised

Echo chamber of politics and the effects the audience/society can have on it 

Social media to voice their opinions 

Abayomi - Spotify Music streaming

'Unification of citizens' come together from different countries and come to listen to music 

75% of users using Spotify's free trials 

CD/DVD albums are susceptible to the effect caused by Spotify's streaming services

Amrit - Social media Instagram

Pluralism - Good for Instagram as it can be used for expression

Hyper-reality - fake reality 

Unrealistic expectations of beauty standards set

Sunny - Social media and American politics

UGC of Internet "memes" spread across, humouring Donald Trump

Use of Reddit "The front page of the Internet" where users express politics for social change

Fake News causing havoc in communities and misinforming to support the creator's intended agenda

Callum - Gaming industry - Activision and Blizzard

PC community building "mods" to create maps

$118.6 billion forecast 

The impact the gaming community has on the new and digital media - aids the marketing process

Katie - Documentaries/Netflix

Piracy of shows and movies damage the nature cashflow of the industry

A show called 'The Crown' spend £750k in a day to budget the one episode

No distribution costs when uploaded to the Internet online

Khadijah - Netflix

Founded in 1977

Globalisation of Netflix - everyone is attracted to it

Binge watchers gained because of its huge attraction

Harkiran - Film industry and distribution

Lionsgate

1 cinema trip = 7 months of Netflix

Marxist argue that the economic power lies to the distributors 

MEST3 PPE - Learner Response

1.) 
WWW: Some use of media terminology and theories.
EBI: Section B is too short - need to be 3+ pages!

2.) I did not meet my target grade - I need an additional 16 marks to meet my target grade.

3.) 
For Section A including questions 1-3, I made the following potential points:

• Use of a narrative voice over
• Use of soundtrack to establish tone
• Opportunities for audiences to express their own values and beliefs
• Role of audiences in providing feedback to media products
• Changes in media technology / impact upon audiences and producers

4.) 

My strongest question in Section A was 2. Question 2 'How do media products encourage audiences to agree with a certain set of values and beliefs?' I think I did particularly better in this question than the others due to the fact that I incorporated other media products such as 'Gone Too Far' by Destiny Ekaragha. I also demonstrated some use of media terminology such as the uses and gratifications of both media products.

5.) My weakest question in Section A was 3. Question 3 'Should the media provide accessible platforms for alternative or oppositional voices?' This was due to the fact that my answer was relatively short.

6.) For Section B I chose question 6 and covered:

• Impact upon, and responses of, traditional media producers
• Recent developments in new and digital media
• Changing demands of audiences

However, my answers were short and vague, and needed more elaboration to gain marks

7.) 

Q1.) As in the examiner's report stated, I missed out using the word 'media'. My paragraphs also were lacking media terminology.

Q2.) Missing more use theory and set of values offered by other media products, such as 'Gone Too Far' in my case.

Q3.) Missing out conclusion and comments on whether that the media 'should' provide platforms for alternative or oppositional voices.

Q6.) Made use of only one media product (Ill Manors in my case), and therefore lacked content to discuss about

8.)
Section A question 3:

The media's accessible platforms allows for alternative or oppositional voices. An influence that fuels this is new and digital media's social networks. Social apps ranging from Twitter to Facebook allows a demonstration of "free speech". Whether that the media "should" give the audience this opportunity is a question of how the audience themselves would want to use and consume information from the Internet. 

The role of media on people's everyday lives is a huge catalyst towards what hegemonic beliefs are set in the status quo. Objectively, specifically in the UK of the 18-to-24-year-olds surveyed, 28% cited social media as their main news source, which may seem like a relatively low number at first sight but once social media's endless synergy and links start to get involved, the numbers can quickly arise and have an impact. Fake news is the issue derived from this, and is rapidly growing causing a moral panic.

An example of this includes director Ben Drew or known by stage name "Plan B", who released ILL Manors a film presenting the slums of London and the hardships of life involved within the urban and "ghetto" teenagers/young adults, involving drug dealing to prostitution. He demonstrates his own passion and ethos of this film in his TEDx lecture, explaining his use of the media's platform to raise awareness on how misrepresented these types of characters are in the real world by the media. Ben Drew as a result acts as an opinion leader that is creating this new "echo chamber" that spreads a more positive view of the slums of London. Ben Drew even could be seen to be a model figure and pioneer for the unheard voices of the teenagers of London themselves, given the media is constantly casting them a bad name with derogatory headlines and their involvement with anti-social behaviour. This as a result demonstrate's Ben Drew's use of certain platforms that give an alternative and oppositional reading to audiences, particularly those foreign to the UK who might be interested in the country's history and context. 

His use of social networks such as Twitter has fueled this. Previously mentioned, not only did the TEDx talk and his other interviews vocalise the issues derived from the underclass youth and post riot London, but it also encouraged him to start a campaign called '#TAGLONDON'. The hashtag in Twitter is known to create a synergy of links throughout the Twitter universe, ultimately attracting attention. Twitter's special features such as the 're-tweet' button also influenced the campaign's awareness. This platform as a result gave users the opportunity to voice their opinions whether it was alternative or oppositional. Simply, they could re-tweet, like and comment on the official Ill Manors Twitter account post to show their support, which as a result means the audience themselves are collectively empowered to use these media platforms in order to allow their alternative/oppositional voices. 

story #68

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-voters-deluge-fake-news-stories-facebook-twitter-russian-influence-days-before-election-a7696506.html

story #68 "French social media awash with fake news stories from sources ‘exposed to Russian influence’ ahead of presidential election"

As the article states, French voters have been deluged with fake news stories on their social media feeds ahead of the country's presidential election, many from sources "exposed to Russian influence", new research has found.  

Researchers from Oxford University found up to a quarter of the political links shared on Twitter in France were based on misinformation. They were identified as deliberately false and expressed “ideologically extreme, hyper-partisan or conspiratorial" views with logical flaws and opinions presented as facts.

Another study published this week from the private research group Bakamo shows many of the fake news reports came from sources "exposed to Russian influence”. Facebook recently suspended 30,000 suspected automated accounts in France with many of the profiles distributing politically driven misinformation and propaganda. On Twitter, where automated accounts are allowed, many accounts that were used to promote Donald Trump have now turned their attention to pushing conspiracy theories and far-right ideas, according to Kevin Limonier, who is studying the manipulation of social media in the French election and and Clinton Watts, a former FBI agent and now a senior fellow at the George Washington University Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

story #67

https://tribuneonlineng.com/media-icon-tasks-stakeholders-collaboration-save-print-media/

story #67 Media icon tasks stakeholders on collaboration, to save print media

As the article states, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, Chairman, Daily Trust Newspapers, on Saturday called on editors, journalists and media owners to work together  to bring  the nation and the media  out of recession.

Yusuf made the call at the Biennial Convention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in Lagos. The Convention Chairman said that the media industry began to experience recession long before it hit the nation’s economy.

He lamented that newspaper readership was on the decline and called on stakeholders to adopt strategies to save the print media.

Yusuf, however, noted that the social media was not responsible for the decline, as according to him, the decline started long before the advent of the social media.

He urged the stakeholders to collaborate to rekindle the interest to read newspapers again in Nigerians, in order for the media to continue to remain relevant.

He said that due to the decline in the purchasing power of the Naira, Publishers now published fewer copies and scrambled for adverts to survive.

story #66

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/15/journalism-faces-a-crisis-worldwide-we-might-be-entering-a-new-dark-age

Story #66 Journalism faces a crisis worldwide – we might be entering a new dark age

As the article states, Australia’s two largest legacy media organisations recently announced big cuts to their journalistic staff. Many editorial positions, perhaps up to 120, will disappear at Fairfax Media, publisher of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and News Corporation announced the sacking of most of its photographers and editorial production staff.
Both announcements were accompanied by corporate spin voicing a continuing commitment to quality journalism. Nobody in the know believes it. This is the latest local lurch in a crisis that is engulfing journalism worldwide.
Now, partly thanks to Donald Trump, many more people are turning their mind to the future of news, including “fake” news and its opposite.
News media for most of the last century appeared to be one relatively simple business. Gather an audience by providing content, including news. Sell the attention of the audience to advertisers. The internet and its applications have brought that business undone. As any householder can attest, the audience no longer assembles in the same concentrations. The family no longer gathers around the news on television. Most homes have multiple screens and news is absorbed as it happens.

story #65

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/apr/11/tiny-newspaper-in-us-wins-pulitzer-prize-for-taking-on-big-business

Story #65 Tiny newspaper in US wins Pulitzer prize for taking on big business

As the article states, a number of important local stories were leading the website of the Storm Lake Times, circulation 3,000, on Tuesday morning. Second-grader Alejandra Gonzales found a four-leaf clover in the field behind her school. A local woman had bought and renovated a building to house 25 elderly cats.

And in a modest announcement of just a sentence, another notable local happening: on Monday, Art Cullen, the paper’s owner and editor, was awarded a Pulitzer prize, the most prestigious award in global journalism, for his editorial writing. Fellow honorees for 2017 include the rather better read New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Miami Herald. The twice-weekly newspaper, serving a town of a little over 10,000 people, may not previously have been widely read outside Buena Vista county, north-west Iowa, but Cullen’s editorials – “fuelled by tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa” – certainly caught the attention of the Pulitzer committee. He beat writers from the Washington Post and Houston Chronicle to the award.

Case study research tasks

MEST3 Independent case study: New/Digital Media

Case study research tasks

The basics

1.) My chosen industry is the music industry

2.) My chosen case study is Apple Music

The audience

1.) The new and digital media has changed people's experience as it gives them convenient access to music from the use of the Internet and electronics. 
2.) New and digital media has also changed the way in how consumers actually consume music, and in this way they can access music anywhere with an Internet connection via YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, etc
3.) New and digital media has also increased the audience size given that music can be uploaded anywhere onto the Internet, therefore the audience number grows with their presence on the Internet
4.) With Apple Music, audiences have now an alternative to music streaming other than using it's competitor Spotify.
5.) New and digital media means that streaming services offered by Spotify and Apple Music for example could be rejected in the sense that audiences could find an alternative that is free
6.) New and digital media has definitely influenced audience pleasures as they can access services through several ways
7.) The target audience for my case study are preferably teenagers to young adults, therefore ranging from the ages of 13-35. 

Institution:
1.) My chosen music industry has had their control impacted by new and digital media as there are other competitors that share the widespread of users 
2.) New and digital media has had an impact on the music industry's ownership as services similar can be accessed elsewhere where it is free 
3.) New and digital media has changed the way institutions produce texts as technology has had a huge influence in the way things are seen, presented, and used by the audience
4.) New and digital media has changed the way in how institutions distribute their product as audiences might tend to use technology to access and find things, therefore an institution for example might create a digital video ad instead of on a billboard.   
5.) New and digital media threatens the music industry as artists may not make profit due to music piracy, given money is the catalyst to music production
6.) New and digital media may offer a synergy of attraction that regulates the music industry, example, social apps such as YouTube for artists' VEVO music videos.

UGC:


Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony:
1.) A Marxist would favour in consumerism and the economy continuing, therefore given that streaming technology helps the music industry a Marxist would have a positive view
2.) A liberal pluralist on the other hand would view different groups with competing interests whilst the media is subject to the wishes of the customer (supply and demand), therefore they would instead favour how consumers are able to listen to music
3.) There are some instances of hegemonic views on the music industry, such as how a music artists are seen to be presenting a lavish lifestyle when in fact in order for them to sustain that they will need sales

Globalisation:
1.) Globalisation has impacted the music industry in an undoubtedly positive way as there is a wider spread of audience to reach out to, therefore increasing their sales and regulating it more
2.) Globalisation has had a positive impact due to more audiences that can access the music industry's services, given that it is on the Internet 
3.) There are some instances of cultural imperialism in the music industry, such as VEVO and their 'Americanisation' where there is rejection of foreign songs being presented in their institution

Social media:
1.) The musc industry has used social medias, such as Twitter and Instagram to each respective artists that use the social platform as a method of reaching out to their fans. It's easily accessible and convenient
2.) Apple Music has both the social networking apps Twitter and Instagram to offer assistance and help to consumers, therefore as a result improving the customer and supplier relationship that improves their brand image
3.) Social media is an opportunity to both the music industry and Apple Music given that certain apps can help raise awareness 

Statistics:
1.) In the UK, about 7.4 billion tracks were streamed on audio services in 2013, twice the total recorded in 2012. While digital accounted for 50% of UK record industry trade revenues last year, streaming brought in 10%, and this figure is rising fast. Spotify, says about 70% of its revenues from advertising and subscriptions goes back to rights holders - the record labels, collecting societies and publishing companies. It says it has paid out more than $1bn (£587m; 735m euros) in royalties since its launch in 2008 to the end of 2013. One 2007 study by the Institute for Policy Innovation estimated that illegal downloading was costing the US economy $12.5bn (£7.3bn; 9.2bn euros) a year.
2.) The impact of new and digital media as a result has made the music industry, specially Apple Music and Spotify the opportunity to expand their regulation.
3.) The impact on audiences is positive given that they're now able to access their favourite artists' newly released albums and music officially through streaming services provided by Spotify and Apple Music, giving them a sense of "premium privilege" 

Theories:
Uses & gratifications - some consumers may use streaming services from Apple Music as a way of getting their "premium privilege" when they are for example, the first ones to listen to an album or song released by a popular artist i.e. Drake. As a result, this may result in a "luxury" lifestyle. 
Two step flow theory - influential for music critics for example, those who listen first and give a review might change people's views prior to buying an album/song and listening to it. If it's a positive review then sales will increase, but vice versa if it's negative.
Surveillance - Similarly, consumers might purchase the top rated, top played, top hits, etc, to introduce themselves to what the social norm of music is nowadays. As a result, there is a cultural transmission.

Issues/debates:
As a result of streaming services introduced with Apple Music and Spotify, the music industry has had an influx and has given artists a chance to regulate and expand their careers.

Wider examples and secondary texts
Social media's influence of a 'two-step flow model'; echo chambers; opinion leaders, etc to create hype

story #64

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/aug/10/fairfax-media-records-8935m-loss-due-to-newspaper-writedowns

story #64 "Fairfax Media records $893.5m loss due to newspaper writedowns"

As the article states, the publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Fairfax Media, has posted a full-year net loss of $893.5m compared with an $82m profit last year after announcing a close to $1bn write-down of assets last week. The media company, which now makes 50% of its profits from online property business Domain, last week separated the profitable website from its struggling newspaper division. Total revenue also declined in the 12 months to 26 June, to $1.83bn, from $1.87bn the previous year, while net operating profit fell 7.6% to $132m. Fairfax announces billion-dollar write-down and plan to split off Domain. Despite an increase in pre-tax profits at Domain and a 20% growth in group digital revenue, Fairfax was hindered by the continued poor performance of its flagship mastheads. Profits in its metro division, which houses the Canberra Times as well as the Herald and The Age, fell nearly 45% to $39m, while profits at local and regional newspapers fell 10% to $110.9m. There are 209,000 paid digital subscribers to the SMH, the Age and the Australian Financial Review, accounting for $38m but it is not enough to offset the losses on the newspapers. With print circulation revenue and print advertising revenue both declining Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood confirmed it was only a matter of time before the Monday to Friday editions of the metropolitan papers ceased publication in line with global trends.

• Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Fairfax Media, has posted a full-year net loss of $893.5m compared with an $82m profit last year after announcing a close to $1bn write-down of assets last week
• the media company, which now makes 50% of its profits from online property business Domain
• Total revenue also declined in the 12 months to 26 June, to $1.83bn, from $1.87bn the previous year, while net operating profit fell 7.6% to $132m
• Canberra Times as well as the Herald and The Age, fell nearly 45% to $39m

story #63

https://www.raconteur.net/culture/tech-trumping-traditional-media

story #63 "Tech trumping traditional media"

As the article states, overall sales of the national titles are falling at a rate of about 10 per cent a year while regional dailies are declining faster. Local papers, which initially bucked the downward trend, have also seen their sales tumble over the past decade.

Yet the digital audience for newspaper content has increased to levels that far exceed the numbers they enjoyed at newsprint’s circulation zenith in the 1960s.

Editors happily point to the millions of people who access their websites. By contrast, their owners and commercial managers sadly point to the financial reality: advertising revenue, the lifeblood of newspapers for more than 150 years, is taking flight. In the jargon of the newspaper trade, newsprint pounds have been replaced by digital pennies. Monetising content has proved more difficult than first appeared because advertisers and their media-buying agencies prefer to seek consumers through social media and, of course, the internet behemoth that is Google.

Their reasoning for the switch from traditional advertising outlets to online alternatives is understandable. In this increasingly connected world, it is easy to track and measure performance. The data is easily available and enables advertisers to target consumers more efficiently, and cheaply, than ever before. They can guarantee that their goods and services reach the right people. This facility is one of the major reasons for the recent prediction by PwC that the UK media and entertainment sector will grow at a rate of 3 per cent a year, making it worth £68.2 billion by 2020.

• ecent prediction by PwC that the UK media and entertainment sector will grow at a rate of 3 per cent a year, making it worth £68.2 billion by 2020.

#62

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1370473/female-journalists-still-taboo-quetta/

#story #62 "Why are female journalists still taboo in Quetta?"

As the article states, a vast majority of families in Quetta look down upon women who work in the media. Even though there are many girls who join journalism school, not many step into the industry for professional work. As a result of this, there is an acute shortage of female journalists in the city, and little to no coverage of women issues is given in the media. According to the records of Directorate General of Public Relations Balochistan, there are 25 news channels and 171 daily newspapers operating in Quetta. Quetta-based journalist Hafeezullah Sherani says there are only three women reporters working with news channels and none associated with newspapers. The three reporters, he adds, don’t have Pakhtun or Baloch background and hence are unaware of local customs and languages.

story #61

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/brexit-concerns-fail-to-stop-uk-advertising-growth-except-for-the-newspaper-and-magazine-industry/

story #61 "Brexit concerns fail to stop UK advertising growth (except for the newspaper and magazine industry)"

As the article states, advertising spending has been forecast to grow across the board in the UK next year with the exception of national and regional newspapers and magazines. In both the newspaper and magazine industry, advertising income is estimated to be declining, according to the AA/Warc Exenditure report. In the national press slight digital growth is failing to cancel out a sharp drop in print advertising. And in the regional press both print and digital advertising are estimated to be declining. National newsbrands (the national press) attracted £1.1bn of advertising last year (down 9.8 per cent), of which digital comprised £224m (up 2.1 per cent) – the report states. Regional newsbrands (the regional press) fell 12 per cent to just over £1bn of which £196m was digital (down 1.7 per cent year on year). The pace of decline for national and regional newsbrands is forecast to slow slightly next year to 7.9 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. The quarterlyreport found that total UK advertising grew 4.4 per cent to £21.1bn in 2016 and is set to grow by a further 3.2 per cent in 2017. Chief executive of the Advertising Association Stephen Woodford said: “That adspend held up after the referendum is another marker of the strength of the UK’s advertising and media industries. As the Government gears up for Brexit negotiations and a new industrial strategy, it must prioritise protecting this global advantage.”

• National newsbrands (the national press) attracted £1.1bn of advertising last year (down 9.8 per cent), of which digital comprised £224m (up 2.1 per cent)
• Regional newsbrands (the regional press) fell 12 per cent to just over £1bn of which £196m was digital (down 1.7 per cent year on year).
• The quarterlyreport found that total UK advertising grew 4.4 per cent to £21.1bn in 2016 and is set to grow by a further 3.2 per cent in 2017

story #60

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/03/29/quebec-budget-contains-help-for-newspapers.html

story #60 "Quebec budget contains help for newspapers"

As the article states, Tuesday’s provincial budget included $36 million to help struggling print media make the transition to a digital product. Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao: “The existence of a lively, diversified and high-quality print media sector is crucial for the vitality of our culture, but also for the health of our democratic way of life throughout Quebec, and particularly in the regions.” Among the tax reductions and financial commitments unveiled by Finance Minister Carlos Leitao was $36-million worth of promised investments to assist the troubled newspaper industry. In his budget speech, Leitao said the money was particularly aimed at helping print media make the difficult transition from a paper to a digital product. In addition to the digital transformation funds, Quebec has established a four-year, $12-million subsidy to offset the payments made by newspaper owners for the recycling of their printed materials. The per-tonne rates that newspaper companies must pay for the recycling of printed material has been rising dramatically in recent years.

story #59

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Why-Indias-Newspaper-Industry-Still-Growing/1015540

story #59 "Why India's Newspaper Industry Is Still Growing"

Surprisingly as the article states, India remains somewhat unusual in that print revenues continues to grow, with newspapers specifically still serving as an effective way for advertisers to reach a significant audience. Despite the strong growth of digital media in India, the traditional formats of television and print still account for the largest portion of total media ad expenditures. eMarketer’s recently updated forecasts estimate TV ad spending will account for 39.3% of total media ad outlays this year, with newspapers making up 33.9%. KPMG/FICCI reported that newspaper growth was really coming from papers published in Hindi and in other local languages and dialects—generally referred to collectively as “vernacular” papers. According to the research, ad revenues for English-language papers grew 3.5% in 2016, compared with 7.1% for Hindi-language papers and 8.7% for those in regional languages. English is really only prevalent in India’s largest cities, leaving readers in smaller cities and rural areas with an appetite for content in their local languages.   

• eMarketer estimates the annual growth rate in the number of smartphone users in India will remain in double digits through 2019, dipping to 9.8% in 2020
• ad revenues for English-language papers grew 3.5% in 2016, compared with 7.1% for Hindi-language papers and 8.7% for those in regional languages
• eMarketer’s recently updated forecasts estimate TV ad spending will account for 39.3% of total media ad outlays this year, with newspapers making up 33.9%.

story #58

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2017/jan/24/winning-back-advertisers-is-key-to-saving-the-newspaper-industry

story #58 "Winning back advertisers is key to saving the newspaper industry"

According to the article, for national newspapers the last couple of years have seemed to be a "near-death experience". Paid-for circulation is in decline, but cover prices have frequently risen to mitigate the revenue loss. Where the money has been haemorrhaging is in advertising. Advertising revenues have a range of identifiable problems. It became clear in the 90s that the internet was going to be massively disruptive to the traditional classified sector. The problem for advertisers is that all of their competitors are doing the same and they are only marketing to their existing database. On the face of it, national newspapers’ advertising revenue problems should not be as severe as recent figures suggest. National titles, combining print sales with online numbers, are actually reaching a higher proportion of the UK market than ever before.

• Total readership across print and digital news brands is 35% of the total UK population daily, 63% weekly and 90% monthly, with the highest monthly reach among the youngest groups (18-34) who tend to access via mobile devices.
• According to Ebiquity (the largest UK media auditor) 75% of the money in the marketing pot does not actually reach the publisher from an advertiser using “programmatic” or automated bid-based advertising on the internet.
• In the first quarter of 2016, Facebook’s net income increased 300% and its margins jumped from 26% to 37%.

mest 3 - research case study - Apple Music Streaming

The music industry is a global business that generates profit by selling musical recordings in both physical and digital formats to media audiences. The music industry is a complex and competitive business and record companies and labels are continually devising new ways of attracting audiences to consume their products.
Bob Dylan is an established artist who has worked alongside Apple and Starbucks to promote his music. This has resulted in a boost to both his public profile and record sales. Apple has benefited from his endorsement of their product by promoting new technology to an older audience. Starbucks have been able to increase sales inside their stores by being the only distributor of a one off Dylan album recorded especially for them.
The audience relies on the media for information and this removes audiences from creative ‘street level’ or original music
• Audiences can only access what the media offers them and they do not have access to all musical choices that are available
• The industry only invests in the types of music that audiences are familiar with and, therefore, only offer what has been proven to be
successful in the past
• This reduces music into formulaic and predictable formats means past successes are replicated often
o For audiences this means they can only access more of the same
o For the record companies there is less financial risk and more potential profit
o Ultimately, this means less choice for consumers
The internet is used for:
• The sale of traditional physical formats
• The marketing of music recordings
• Netcasts and live performances
• The sale of music downloads
• The management of official websites of recording artists and
record companies
Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, or $14.99 per month for a family subscription for up to six people (which requires iCloud Family Sharing). Students also get a steep discount, with a student tier offering the service for just $4.99. Best of all, there’s a 3-month free trial.
There is not free and ad-supported version. Some aspects will be available to anyone who logs in with an Apple ID—namely, Beats 1, the ability to follow artists on Connect, and the ability to listen to Apple Music radio stations with a limited number of skips—but a paid subscription is required to access Apple Music’s entire library.
Apple Music is available in more than 100 countries worldwide, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan, Brazil, and India.
Apple Music has a library of roughly 30 million songs. iTunes on the other hand - its store sells 43 million songs worldwide.
Unsigned artists can sell their music on iTunes, have it streamed on Spotify or Soundcloud and produce their own videos for YouTube.
One way it is doing this is through saturating the market with what
Mulligan calls ‘The Superstar Economy.’ The Internet was meant to
weaken the dominance of superstar artists in the music industry
and enrich the smaller, niche music creators. But new research
suggests that this “long tail” theory is wrong: superstars are capturing the vast majority of music revenues and their share is increasing – not decreasing – because of the rise of digital services like iTunes and Spotify. The top 1 per cent of artists the likes of Rihanna and Adele accounted for 77 per cent of recorded music income in 2013. Most digital music services have catalogues of more than 20m tracks are not listened to. In this illusion of choice consumers are overwhelmingly listening to the ‘hits’.
Synergy is another way in which record companies generate income
via advertising and marketing their artists in association with other
brands or products. Synergy occurs when one branch of a company
(e.g. Sony Music) uses another part of the company (the gaming division) to promote each other. In this example, synergy occurs when the gaming division uses an artist’s music on a game soundtrack. Synergy can occur between divisions of entertainment companies (music, film, television, gaming, books, magazines etc.) and also between the music industry and businesses outside entertainment. Two unrelated brands such as The Black Eyed Peas and Pepsi worked together to target a broader audience and this collaboration benefited both the band and the soft drink The fact that the primary function of the music industry is to generate profit is argued by some theorists to create a conflict as music is seen to be a creative art or an expression of ideas, unlike, for example advertising which is solely focused on meeting its economic function of persuading the audience to purchase goods. Consider how music videos, posters, interviews in the music press and personal appearances all act as adverts for the products being sold by the music industry. Some theorists have identified this financial motivation as being detrimental to artistic development and creativity.
A vanity label receives funding from the record label it operates
under and this money helps fund their distribution and marketing.
Record companies support vanity labels for a variety of reasons:
1. The label creates status for the famous artist by allowing them
creative control to discover new talent and produce music that
is more independent from the ideals of the record company.
2. Vanity labels have the potential to create high volume sales
figures for the record company. Vanity labels need little promotion
because the artists existing fans are attracted to the new artists
signed on the label due to their affiliation with the famous artist ‘responsible’ for the label. 
Drake has shifted completely over from SoundCloud to Apple Music, according to The Verge. As part of the integration of Beats 1, Apple Music's 300 million streams of "More Life" is half of the worldwide total, despite having one fifth the members of Spotify. Drake released a series of Apple Music-exclusive songs in 2015, on OVO Sound Radio. The show airs every two weeks on Saturdays and focuses on new releases. Apple continues to decline requests for specific listenership data or demographics for Beats 1. 

Chance the Rapper has been looked to as a pioneer in the music industry for maintaining his independence by not tying himself to a major label and going the free mixtape route instead of charging for a studio album. That’s why recent news suggesting the rapper might sell his next album became particularly noteworthy. Now, in an extended Twitter commentary, the Grammy winner has revealed that Apple Music paid him $500,000 for exclusive streaming rights to Coloring Book.

• 77 percent of iOS users are aware of Apple Music
• 11 percent are currently using Apple Music. That figure is consistent among users who purchase downloads from iTunes, or use iTunes to manage their music library.
• 18 percent of iTunes Radio users are now listening to Apple Music. iTunes Radio was Apple’s previous streaming product that was rolled into Apple Music and rebranded to include Beats 1 and other genre stations.
• 52 percent of users who have tried Apple Music are still tuning in. That means that over half are still hooked on the service almost two months after it first launched. (Update: Apple is contesting this figure, telling The Verge that 79 percent of Apple Music users have actually stuck around and are currently using the service).
• 28 percent of Spotify paid subscribers also use Apple Music. These can be considered the die-hard streaming fans who try and compare different platforms to see which one most deserves their $10 every month.
• 11 percent of free Spotify users and 6 percent of free Pandora users are on Apple Music. The low figures here indicate that for most users using free, ad-supported streaming services are satisfied and not willing to pay $10 for anything else—even with Apple Music’s tempting three-month trial.
• 64 percent of current Apple Music users claim they are very likely to pay to subscribe after their free trials end. 
• 61 percent of current Apple Music users have already turned off the auto-renewal. Perhaps they just want to subscribe on their own terms.
• 30 percent listen to Beats 1.
• 27 percent use Connect.
• 33 percent of current Apple Music users were encouraged to start purchasing or purchase more downloads from iTunes. Apple Music users could be turning to iTunes purchases to get access to music that isn’t available to stream on Apple Music.
• 40 percent of iOS users are still purchasing downloads from iTunes.

Drake:
After Drake's self-proclaimed "playlist" "More Life" was released on Saturday, it amassed 89.9 million streams on Apple Music and 61.3 million streams on Spotify in the first day alone, according to official numbers confirmed to Fader.
These streams may be a moneymaker for artists like the champagne papi, but they're also a big deal for streaming companies, which last year displaced digital music sales to become the no. 1 way people listen to digital music (if you're curious, R&B and hip-hop are the top genres).
This may be part of the reason that Apple paid $500,000 for Chance the Rapper's "Coloring Book" mixtape to be an Apple exclusive for two weeks. After that, the mixtape appeared for free on Soundcloud and went on to win a Grammy.

Last year Apple Music surpassed 20 million subscribers, while Spotify recently reached 50 million. The more listeners these services gain, the more money the streaming companies and artists make.

BPI figures show that the total income generated by the UK music industry rose 5 per cent last year, from £881m to £925m, as the revenue from streaming services shot up by 60 per cent, the FT reports.
Subscriptions to Spotify, Apple and other services such as Deezer accounted for 87 per cent of the £273m overall streaming revenues.
However, despite popular opinion that physical sales are dying, the total income from non-digital formats still made up 32 per cent of the British market in 2016 - only dipping by 2 per cent.
All of the massive numbers connected to proper streaming services are great, but they don’t hold a candle to YouTube, which is still how the world listens to music...a fact that isn’t exactly making the music industry happy. In fact, while countries like the United States are leading the incredible gains made by firms like Spotify and Apple Music, it’s the rest of the world that seems content to stick with the video platform everybody is already familiar with.

According to data provided by the company itself exclusively to FORBES, an estimated 80% of all views on YouTube come from outside the U.S. The largest and most popular video site on the planet has never had a difficult time pulling in views, but even as those play counts rise, where they are coming from has shifted over the past few years.

Looking at the top 100 videos on the platform during any given week, it is clear that it's not just American-made pop stars that are bringing in the eyeballs. For example, during the last tracking frame in March, the top 100 list contained songs in English, Spanish, Hindi, Korean, Russian and even Thai, with other languages popping into the popular ranking from time to time as well. The most-viewed music video of all time remains Psy's K-pop blockbuster "Gangnam Style," and new releases from megastars in large markets like India and Korea can attract more people than even some of the most intensely marketed names in markets like America.
A representative for the video hosting platform revealed that 40% of views on YouTube in the second half of 2016 came from Latin America alone, and that only 20% of all views across the site originate in English-speaking countries. That number may continue to drop as Americans, Canadians and those in Western Europe switch to streaming sites which are better suited for mobile listening. Services like Spotify and Apple Music may not be as large as YouTube, but they beat the Google-owned site to the punch when it came to features like offline listening, playlisting and curation, which millions are now coveting.
YouTube, which is still entirely free to use and which contains a catalog of tens, if not hundreds of millions of songs, has almost everything a listener could want at absolutely no cost and with no need to download something new and learn how it works. Those benefits far outweigh the perks of a premium account for millions in developing nations, and even if some wanted to subscribe, some of the biggest players in streaming are still working on launching in every nation.

It might not be on the good side of industry bigwigs which have been wringing their hands and shaking their fists over miniscule payout rates and insufficient piracy blockers for years, but YouTube is still how millions of people all around the world listen to their favorite artists and the hits everybody just can’t get enough of, and that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

Apple Music, Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) media streaming service, was launched June 2015. In a short span of 20 months, it crossed the 20 million paying subscriber milestone (December 2016), closing the gap with segment leader Spotify, which reached 50 million paying subscribers in March 2017. Both streaming services have captured a major portion of the U.S. market and continue to grow.
According to a recent report by Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets, Apple Music is only installed by 3% of Apple device users. Though not every iOS user will be happy to start paying for Apple Music, a low single-digit number suggests there are still plenty of customers the company can bring to its music streaming service.
Apple Music is already available in more than 100 countries around the world, but there is more room for growth as Apple Music is not even two years old. Senior Vice President of Apple Services Eddy Cue told The Verge the company is hoping for faster growth.
Streaming platforms in the US market are now generating more annual cash from music than digital download services like iTunes ever did.

Streaming vs music downloads:
According to RIAA data analyzed by Music Business Worldwide, the peak of download retail sales in the US market (inclusive of ringtones, music videos, ‘kiosk’ and other digital sales) came in 2012, when they topped $3bn at $3.02bn.
As previously reported, streaming platforms generated significantly more than this ($3.93bn) in 2016, thanks to a 68% year-on-year rise in revenues.
It’s important to note that this $3.93bn figure includes $884m of payouts from SoundExchange, for streaming plays of records on ‘lean-back’ digital radio services such as Pandora and SiriusXM.
Even without SoundExchange, US music subscription streaming revenues reached $2.48bn in 2016 (including $220m from ‘limited tier’ services like Amazon Prime Music and Pandora’s $4.99-a-month Plus platform).
In addition, ad-funded streaming platforms such as YouTube, Vevo and Spotify’s free tier generated $469m in the US last year – resulting in total an on-demand streaming tally (ie. not including SoundExchange) of $2.95bn.
That’s actually bigger than the total revenues from albums and singles sales on the likes of iTunes in 2012 – the year of download’s apex – which jointly reached $2.83bn.
(That year’s total official ‘download’ figure of $3.02bn was boosted by $166.9m in ringtone sales, as well as other niche digital formats.)

It would take a brave analyst to forecast that subscription platforms alone won’t top this $2.83bn mark in 2017.

Streaming has provided a growth boost to the music sector after years of decline because of online piracy and falling CD sales. Yet artists complain that they make precious little from services like Spotify. Chris Difford, who co-wrote hits such as Up the Junction and Tempted with his band Squeeze, said that for every 6,000 streams of one of his songs, he is paid just £1.50.
Mr Masuch said that BMG now pays its artists 75 per cent of streaming royalties, but major labels still pay out much lower ratios, because of higher legacy expenses such as the cost of warehouses, logistics and breakage.
He argued that the big music companies spent, on average, 19 per cent of their revenues on artist royalties. With 60 per cent of music revenues now derived from streaming, a push by artists to renegotiate royalty deals towards a 50 per cent level or higher could steer returns-on-sales rates into negative territory, according to the BMG boss.

On-demand music streams rose 76% in 2016 in the U.S., while digital track sales fell 25%, digital album sales sank 20% and CD album sales slipped 16%, according to Nielsen.
The Recording Industry Association of America expects to release full-year 2016 statistics in March. But for the first half of 2016, streaming accounted for 47% of U.S. recorded music sales, followed by permanent downloads (31%) and physical media (20%), RIAA said.
It's still early days for the streaming music business, with many more consumers left to convert. Predicting which companies will end up on top has become a parlor game for industry analysts.

Spotify and Apple's (AAPL) Apple Music are leading the charge now in subscription streaming music services, though in Apple's case the streaming business is cannibalizing some of its iTunes download sales.
Meanwhile, Tidal, Deezer, Napster, SoundCloud and others are fighting for table scraps. Tidal, the service run by music mogul Jay Z, received a financial lifeline when Sprint (S) on Jan. 23 announced that it was buying a 33% stake in the company for an undisclosed sum reportedly around $200 million.
Music subscription services passed the 100 million subscriber milestone on a global basis in December, Midia Research reports.

Midia, a music industry blog, estimates that Spotify ended the year with 43 million subscribers, to 20.8 million for Apple Music. Deezer, a 10-year-old company based in Paris, came in third place with 6.9 million subscribers, followed by Napster (4.5 million) and Tidal (1 million). Amazon and Google, at this point, don't make the top five, though it's possible they'll give this market more attention at some point.
MusicWatch estimates that Apple iTunes has about 75% of the music download business in the U.S., which totaled about $2.13 billion last year. So Apple's gross sales in digital downloads were about $1.6 billion in 2016, Crupnick said.

MusicWatch also estimates that Apple Music has about 9 million U.S. subscribers out of 25 million streaming music subscribers in the country. With average revenue per user of about $100 per year, that translates to a $900 million annual run rate in the U.S. alone.

Further profits from streaming music:

At the beginning of December, one of the world’s biggest labels, Warner Music, announced revenues of $3.25bn (£2.66bn) this year – its highest in eight years. More significantly, $1bn of that was from streaming, more than double its download revenue and more than $100m more than its physical revenue.

The surge in profits is being seen across all the major labels. In the first half of 2016, streaming revenue in the US grew by 57% to $1.6bn, and worldwide digital revenues overtook those from physical sales for the first time in music industry history, mainly because of streaming. This year’s most-streamed artist was Drake, with 4.2bn streams. There are 90 million people signed up to streaming services worldwide and the shift, and the aggressive speed at which it has taken place, is having the greatest impact on music since digital downloads were introduced. It makes boycotts by artists such as Taylor Swift, who condemned Spotify for only paying between $0.006 and $0.0084 each time someone listens to a song, seem redundant.

The U.S. industry is on pace to expand for the second straight year -- the first time that’s happened since the CD sales peaked in 1998 and 1999. Retail spending on recorded music grew 8.1 percent to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2016, according to a midyear report from the Recording Industry Association of America that was obtained by Bloomberg News.
The credit goes to streaming -- Internet services that give listeners commercial-free access to millions of songs for a monthly fee -- or for free if they’re willing to hear ads. U.S. streaming revenue grew 57 percent to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2016 and accounted for almost half of industry sales. 
While sales from ad-supported, on-demand streaming grew 24 percent to $195 million in the first half of 2016, according to the RIAA report, those services aren’t doing enough to convince people to pay for music and and don’t make enough money off their free users, RIAA Chairman Cary Sherman said in a blog post.
The growth in streaming is being seen worldwide, including previously small markets and others decimated by piracy.
South Korea has emerged as one of the 10 largest music markets in the world, with sales totaling $265.8 million in 2014, according to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries. A decade ago, that market was half the size and not one of the 25 largest.
Unlike Korea, China was once a major market, contributing $212 million in sales back in 2004. Yet with the explosion of piracy it shrank to just $23 million in 2010. The world’s most populous country was the 38th largest music market.

By 2014, the market in China surpassed $100 million for the first time in almost a decade, with streaming a major source of the recovery there.