Music streaming has outpaced CD sales for the first time

Considering how it was pretty much taken as fact that digital music sales dominated the industry, it was surprising when we discovered last year that digital music sales were actually shrinking. Then again, it’s not too surprising when you look at services like Spotify and see how ridiculously popular music streaming is becoming. In fact, music streaming has outpaced CD sales for the first time ever.  

Earlier this year, we learnt that album unit sales in the US were down 11% in 2014. Now the RIAA has revealed that, financially, things weren’t as bad as first first: the retail value of the industry was down just 0.5% in the year – mainly thanks to streaming. According to new RIAA stats, the retail value of the US industry fell under $7bn in the year, to $6.97bn. Although essentially flat, that’s less than half the pre-Napster industry high of $14.6 billion in 1999. Interestingly, streaming income, which rose 3.2% to $1.87bn, overtook CD income for the first time – which fell 12.7% to $1.85bn. Paid subscription was up 25% to $799.1m, while ad-supported ‘freemium’ revenues – including YouTube – increased 34% to $294.8m. SoundExchange collections from streaming personalised radio services such as Sirius XM and Pandora, were up 31% to $773.4m.