Germany's biggest artists demand labels pay greater streaming revenues

Rammstein and Helene Fischer are demanding a greater slice of the digital pie – though such issues are often resolved in secret, limiting real change

A collective of the biggest music managers in Germany has written to the three major record labels, Universal, Sony and Warner, as well as BMG, demanding a greater share of the country’s burgeoning streaming business.

The timing is telling. Until 2018, Germany (like Japan) was swimming against global trends by hanging on to a relatively defiant CD market: in 2017, the IFPI reported that physical sales made up 40.6% of the German record market, whereas streaming held at 25.5%. In 2018, though, the hierarchy shifted as physical sales dropped to a 35% share while streaming nosed past it with 37%.

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