Published
Fri, Mar 31, 2017, 18:14
- Streaming revenues fueled double-digit growth for 2016.
US music sales jumped 11.4 percent in 2016, the largest single-year improvement since 1998.
Billboard reports revenues came in at $7.65 billion in 2016, up from $6.87 billion in 2015. The sizable improvement was driven largely by sales from streaming services, which are up 68.5 percent to $3.93 billion, making for a larger market share than downloads, CDs and vinyl combined. Paid streaming subscriptions were responsible for $2.26 billion of this amount, up 94.9 percent from $1.16 billion in 2015.
However, digital downloads dropped 24.1 percent to $1.84 billion, with physical albums sales sinking 21.3 percent, with 86 million units sold for $876 million in total revenues. Sales for new vinyl releases are still growing, albeit at a slower rate—in 2016, vinyl revenues rose 3.5 percent to $340 million, flagging from wax's average 38 percent yearly growth between 2012 and 2015.