Two new studies by leading music industry data and analytics firms BuzzAngle and Nielsen offer a deep dive into music consumption in the first half of 2017. Statistics from both show a growing music industry driven by impressive gains in streaming.
Two new reports chronicle a growing recording industry.
Weekly on-demand audio streaming surpassed seven billion in March of 2017. In the the first six months of 2017, there were 184.3 billion on-demand audio streams – a 62% increase over the same period in 2016, according to a new Nielsen Music report. A similar analysis by BuzzAngle put audio streams at 179.8 billion, up 58.5% over 2016.
Some highlights from the BuzzAngle Music 2017 Mid-Year U.S. Report
The first half of 2017 saw a continued increase in total consumption, growing 9.9% over 2016 YTD (293.0 million project units in 2017 YTD vs. 266.6 million album project units in 2016 YTD)
Song Consumption for 2017 YTD was up 29.5% over 2016 YTD (1.5 billion song project units in 2017 YTD vs. 1.2 billion song project units in 2016 YTD).
Audio streams reached 179.8 billion, up 58.5% over 2016 YTD.
Subscription streams grew 69.3% and accounted for 78.6% of total audio streams in 2017 YTD, up from 73.6% in 2016 YTD.
Overall album sales were down 13.9% compared to 2016 YTD (74.0 million in 2017 YTD vs. 86.0 million in 2016 YTD).
Digital album sales in 2017 YTD were down 24.3% over the previous year (34.5 million in 2017 YTD vs. 45.6 million in 2016 YTD).
Digital album sales accounted for 46.6% of all album sales in 2017 YTD, down from 53.0% over 2016 YTD.
Physical album sales were down 2.1% (39.6 million in 2017 YTD vs. 40.4 million in 2016 YTD). Physical album sales accounted for 53.4% of all album sales in 2017 YTD, up from 46.9% over 2016 YTD.
Vinyl album sales were up 20.4% over 2016 YTD while CD album sales were down 3.9%. Vinyl albums accounted for 4.9% of all physical album sales, up from 3.5% in 2016 YTD.
Song sales (downloads) in 2017 YTD were down 23.8% compared to 2016 YTD (313.3 million in 2017 YTD vs. 410.9 million in 2016 YTD).
Download the full BuzzAngle Report free here.
Download the full Nielsen Music Report free here.