After year’s of down numbers, the music industry is finally starting to rebound. Thanks to music streaming, the pace of expansion is accelerating, despite a growing downturn in music sales.
_______________________________________________
U.S. music consumption grew nicely during the first half of 2016, even as sales of most formats declined, according to a new mid-year data from BuzzAngle Music. With the pace of audio streaming more than doubling over the same period in 2015, total music consumption was up an impressive 6.5%. On-demand audio and video streams grew by a combined 58%.
Streaming growth managed to offset growing declines in physical music sales. Vinyl sales had 17% gain, but CD erosion of 11% meant physical album volume fell by 9% vs. the first half of 2015.
Digital Sales Decline
As happened in 2015, digital song sales continue to fall faster than digital album sales, declining by 24.2% and 17.7%, respectively. Tracks still outsell album downloads by more than a 9-1 margin. As was the case in 2015, digital accounts for more than half of albums sold in the first half of 2016 with a 53% share.
Download the full BuzzAngle Music report free here.