Published
Fri, Mar 1, 2019, 01:16
- Vinyl sales also rose again in 2018—the format now makes up one third of physical format sales.
The RIAA has released its 2018 Year-End Music Industry Revenue Report.
2018 saw an overall rise in revenues from recorded music of 12 percent, to approximately $9.8 billion. Increased streaming revenues are largely responsible for the double-digit growth, particularly paid subscription services like Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. Revenues from streaming rose 30 percent over the year to reach $7.4 billion, with subscription on-demand streaming services accounting for over half of revenue.
Advertiser-supported streaming services, like YouTube and the free version of Spotify, were used to play more than 400 billion songs, but accounted for only eight percent of total revenues. Digital downloads, meanwhile, continued to contract for the sixth consecutive year. Permanent downloads of albums fell 25 percent to $500 million in sales, while track sales were down 28 percent for $490 million. Downloads now make up only 11 percent of revenue, down from 42 percent in 2013.
The decline of physical music continued in 2018, with sales dropping 23 percent to $1.15 billion. CDs fell 34 percent to comprise $698 million—its the first time CD sales fell short of $1 billion since 1986. Vinyl remains a bright spot in the physical market. Sales rose eight percent to $419 million—the format now comprises one third of total physical music sales in the US.
Check out the full report here.