Hasta La Creative!

After almost two decades of relentless decline caused by piracy and falling prices, the music business is enjoying a fragile recovery thanks to the growth of paid streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.

Retail spending on recorded music grew 8.1% to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2016, according to a draft midyear report from the Recording Industry Association of America that was obtained by Bloomberg News. That means the U.S. industry is on pace to expand for the second straight year — the first back-to-back growth since 1998-1999.

The credit goes to streaming — internet services that give listeners commercial-free access to millions of songs for a monthly fee — or for free if they’re willing to hear ads. U.S. streaming revenue grew 57% to $1.6 billion in the first half of 2016 and accounted for almost half of industry sales, more than countering shrinking purchases of albums and singles. Subscriptions totaled $1.01 billion, according to the RIAA data.

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