Much to the delight of their respective camps Beyonce and Rihanna stand in a very unique position in 2017.
What that is? Unlike their closest contemporaries, the ladies still have the power to move impressive pure sales in today’s market.
Today, their impact has been celebrated by all corners of the music industry after numbers they generated on a streaming front pushed the arena to the 112 million subscriber marker!
The number of paid music streaming subscribers worldwide doubled within the last year with last year’s figure sitting at the 68 million point.
Streaming accounted for 45% of Universal Music Group’s (home to Rihanna) revenue in the quarter that ended 6/30. Revenue was nearly 16% over Q2 2016 to $1.5 billion. Operating income was up 48% $183.3m and EBITDA raced up 38% to $191m.
In the first six months of 2017, revenue is up15% percent to just under $3b; operating income spiked 43% to $335m; and EBITDA saw a 36.5% increase to almost $355m. Recorded music is up nearly 17% to $2.3b; UMPG saw a nearly 11% rise to $431.2m.