The Portuguese music streaming market rose by an estimated 60 percent over the course of 2015, according to Miguel Carretas, the General Director of royalties distribution association AUDIOGEST.
Carretas told Lusa News Agency “the forecasts that we have, taking into account the monthly reports, point to a value of approximately €5.9 million from streaming in 2015. In 2014, the market registered €3.7 million.”
Emphasising the lack of definitive data for 2015, the General Director said services such as Spotify and Google Play Music had “leveraged the digital market” and now accounted for around a third of the total music market.
This shows that Portuguese consumers are spending less on buying music in physical or digital formats but are shelling out more for streaming services, Carretas reflected.
Carretas said that the entire 2014 market for CD sales, downloads and similar had closed the year at €17.6 million and that AUDIOGEST, in association with AFP – the Portuguese Phonographic Industry, was now launching a table to compile the most popular streaming artists taking into account Apple, Google, Napster, Spotify and Xbox, the licensed streaming platforms in Portugal.
The first table of 2016 sees “Sorry” and “What do you mean?” by Justin Bieber top of the chart followed by Adele’s “Hello” with the latter having the best selling album of the year thus far.
Meanwhile, in related news, 2015 was the best year for Portuguese film in 40 years.
Last year Portuguese cinemas saw a 20 percent surge in audience figures and revenues over the course of last year, with 2.5 million more filmgoers generating €12.1 million more in turnover.
Information from the ICA - Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual, said a total of 355 full-length feature films were released last year, the majority of them American films.
Minions proved the year’s single most popular film, attracting an audience of 937,383 and generating ticket sales of €4.7 million.
In turn, Portuguese films attracted a total audience of 940,063 in 2015.
NOS Lusomundo Cinemas maintained the lead in terms of market share, accounting for 62.3 percent of gross ticket sales.