For anyone that doesn’t believe that the music industry is shrinking in terms of revenues earned, here’s one statistic that should put things in perspective: In Q2 2015, Chinese shoppers spent more on iPhones (and other Apple gadgets) than the entire world did on recorded music last year.
According to a press release made public earlier this week, the consumer electronics giant made an astonishing $58 billion in their Q2, which ended on March 28th of this year. Of that figure, $13.6 billion was profit. Those numbers are incredible on their own, but they are made even more gargantuan when compared with other companies and industries.
One comparison that is especially humbling (and troubling) is with the music industry. The world of Rihanna, Kanye West, and Beyoncé may be glamorous, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to dollars and cents. While superstars are still finding ways to bring in big paychecks, a lot of it isn’t from the music that has made and continues to make them so famous.
Of Apple’s enormous total, $16.8 billion of it came from China alone. That number is thanks mostly in part to surging iPhone sales, which seem to only ever be going up. That $16.8 billion is a 71% increase, which make it the second largest territory for the tech conglomerate. China is now the number one buyer of iPhones in the world, besting even the United States for the first time.
Sadly, $16.8 billion is almost $2 billion more than the entire global recorded music industry made in 2014. Last year, all revenue earned from recorded music totalled out at just under $15 billion—$14.97 billion to be exact. The industry witnessed a 0.4% decline year over year, with an ever-increasing loss of sales of digital downloads and physical CDs almost compensated for by the massively-growing streaming world. In the coming years, the industry may see platforms like Spotify and Pandora contribute the bulk of earnings from recorded music, but it isn’t there just yet.
Apple ended Q2 with over $197 billion in cash. Meanwhile, even some of the biggest record labels are searching the depths of their pockets for money, despite an increasing number of revenue streams.
