Streaming accounts for 89% of digital music revenues in Sweden

"Streaming music now accounts for 89% of digital music sales in Sweden, according to figures released by GLF, the local arm of music industry body the IFPI.
In fact, the entire music market in Sweden is buoyant. Overall music sales increased by 30.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2012 to SEK 446m (around $63.5m), with digital music accounting for 63.5% of all music sales.
So, while physical revenues fell by 2.2% in the first six months of 2012, digital revenues were up 60.5%. Streaming revenues rose 79.4% to SEK 252.7m ($40m), while ‘other’ digital revenues (i.e. downloads) fell 14% to SEK 30.7m ($4.4m).
Or, to put it a different way, streaming is cannibalising downloads in Sweden, but the growth of the former is far outweighing the fall of the latter. And, in fact, streaming growth is also more-than compensating for the ongoing slump in physical music sales.
The popularity of Spotify – while other streaming services are available in Sweden, it’s really Spotify we’re talking about – might be bad news for Apple’s iTunes, but it looks like good news for labels, publishers AND artists. With the caveat that this relies on artists getting their fair cuts of these streaming revenues through their labels – an ongoing debate."

Source:  MusicAlly, 13th July 2012