And so this is Christmas. And if you’re in any doubt as to what you have done over the past 12 months, Music Week's last issue of the year should help you out.
As we compiled our bumper Review Of The Year issue, it became more and more obvious that this year was a truly significant one for the industry in all sorts of ways.
People will remember the iconic artists and industry figures we lost over the last 12 months of course – and, if I could have one wish for 2017, it would be to spend less time writing late-night obituaries for musical giants – but music biz historians will surely note 2016 down as the year streaming broke as a format.
This time last year, many big releases shunned the format, but we end the year with streaming a vital component of almost every major release. There is still some adjustment to this brave new world going on of course, hence the news that the Official Charts Company are tweaking the streaming-to-sales ratio that’s proved controversial this year.
Whether that will help with the stagnating chart and the lack of breakthroughs that have provided some more dark clouds on the music business horizon remains to be seen. But we end the year with the business firmly back in growth and with the sense that, if we are still not entirely sure where we are going, then we do at least have a routemap of how to get there. Gold, frankincense and Olly Murs CDs all round.
So please do have yourselves a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and see you back here in January to chart what 2017 has in store for us all…
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