Being a newbie, sliding into my seat to listen to presentations on the global digital market in the main conference hall at WIPO headquarters in Geneva was like revisiting a university lecture hall. Except that, unlike a campus lecture, there were more than 1,000 registrations from 144 countries.
Now, on to what was learned. The creative industry represents more than 30 million jobs worldwide. The global music recording industry is worth US $15 billion. Revenue from digital sources grew to $6.8 billion and is now equal to those from physical sources, averaged across all markets. Yet, music is still in a state of flux as it struggles to adapt to the online era. Digital delivery decreases the cost of creating, distributing, and storing music, yet the remuneration to artists in this medium has not made up the difference from losses in physical sales.