Streaming music leads boost in Sweden, accounting for 89 percent of digital music sales

Streaming music’s effect on the the industry’s revenues has been a point of contention for some time, but there are signs that it’s going to be an important — and possibly the dominant — piece of overall music sales soon. That’s already the case in Sweden, where new data from GLF, as reported by Musically, shows that streaming music accounts for 89 percent of overall digital sales, which itself accounts for 63.5 percent of all music sales in the country. In fact, music sales in the country are up 30.1 percent year-over-year, though that doesn’t meant that they have recovered from their gigantic dip earlier this decade.

Spotify is a big part of the shift, as the streaming service is very popular in the country. It’s possible that we could see a similar trend elsewhere. Universal Music UK has said that Spotify isn’t hurting sales, Warner Music Group has seen big growth in streaming (though still small numbers), and SoundExchange has said that royalties from streaming just crossed the $1 billion mark. So while there’s a chance that continued conflict over exactly how digital music is licensed could still derail growth, the possibility that Sweden’s success could spread is very real.