Is the Record Business Really Back? How Streaming Is (And Isn’t) Turning a Profit

For the last few years, Barclays’ annual research reports about the music industry reflected the challenges of a business in ­transition — or, more specifically, one that had slowed a rapid decline but had not returned to growth. In 2014, as track sales fell, the bank’s report declared that “Streaming Killed the Download Star”; the 2015 edition was titled “Swimming Upstream.” But the bank’s ­latest research report, published in October and titled “Dancing Days Are Here Again,” starts with much better news: “2016 is the year recorded music appears to be ­turning a corner.”