From Vinyl to Streaming: Economic Sustainability and Globalisation in the Music Industry
| cris.sourceId | oai:journals.unwe.bg:article/29 | |
| dc.creator | Ivanov, Hristo | en |
| dc.date | 2026-07-30 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-09-24T23:08:18Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-09-24T23:08:18Z | |
| dc.description | This paper examines the transition of the music industry from physical media (vinyl, CD) to digital streaming, with a focus on economic and environmental sustainability. Historically, physical formats offered high margins for labels but generated significant material waste. Streaming has stabilised the global music economy, accounting for 67.3% of recorded music revenue by 2023, yet it has introduced new structural pressures. Economically, the pro-rata royalty model intensifies income inequality, concentrating the majority of royalties among the top 1% of artists, while platforms struggle with persistently high licensing costs and thin margins. Environmentally, the shift replaces material waste with substantial, consumption-dependent energy demands from global data center infrastructure. The analysis concludes that streaming offers macro-level stability, but its long-term sustainability is threatened by creator precarity and escalating energy consumption. | en |
| dc.format | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier | https://rp.unwe.bg/index.php/rp/article/view/29 | |
| dc.identifier | 10.37075/RP.2026.3.09 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://ds.e-dnrs.org/handle/123456789/612 | |
| dc.language | en | |
| dc.publisher | Academic Publishing UNWE (AP-UNWE) | en |
| dc.relation | https://rp.unwe.bg/index.php/rp/article/view/29/21 | |
| dc.rights | Copyright (c) 2026 Hristo Ivanov (Author) | en |
| dc.rights | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 | en |
| dc.source | Research Papers of UNWE; No. 3 (2026); 181-196 | en |
| dc.subject | Cultural industries | en |
| dc.subject | Income inequality | en |
| dc.subject | Carbon footprint | en |
| dc.subject | Sustainability | en |
| dc.subject | Royalty distribution | en |
| dc.subject | Globalisation | en |
| dc.subject | Streaming economics | en |
| dc.subject | L82 - Entertainment • Media | en |
| dc.subject | D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement | en |
| dc.subject | Q54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming | en |
| dc.title | From Vinyl to Streaming: Economic Sustainability and Globalisation in the Music Industry | en |
| dc.type | Peer-reviewed Article | en |