Digital music sales catch up to physical CDs

Subscription services are now at the heart of the music industry's portfolio of businesses, representing 23 percent of the digital market and generating $1.6 billion in trade revenues.

The industry sees substantial growth potential in the subscription sector, with new services advancing in 2015 led by three major global players: YouTube's Music Key, Jay Z's TIDAL and Apple's expected subscription service.

The global recording industry is a portfolio business of different consumer channels and business models. This is underlined by the enduring nature of the physical format, still 46 percent of the market. Digital revenues by downloads accounted to 52 percent of the market. Physical sales still dominate in a number of key worldwide markets including France (57 percent), Germany (70 percent) and Japan (78 percent).

As for the Chinese music market, Moore says though the music industry in China has long been plagued by online piracy, the landscape has begun to change. She describes the Chinese music market as "the biggest potential market in the world, which is experiencing great changes".

She mentions that the changes will be brought by Tencent, one of China's biggest Internet companies and the maker of WeChat. The company has made deals with Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and South Korean music label YG Entertainment last year, which will enable Tencent to have the rights to distribute music through various online channels legally.

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