WASHINGTON D.C. (CelebrityAccess) — The RIAA has issued their annual mid-year report, which suggests that the recorded music industry is the strongest it’s been in a long time.
According to the report, total revenues from recorded music in the United States grew 10% to $4.6 billion at retail in the first half of the year, with streaming accounting for approximately 75% of the sector’s revenues.
Revenues from streaming itself grew 28% year-over-year to $3.4 billion for the first half of 2018. The RIAA counts streaming as revenues from rom subscription services (such as paid versions of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, TIDAL, and others), digital and customized radio services (like Pandora, SiriusXM, and other Internet radio), and ad-supported on-demand streaming services (such as YouTube, Vevo, and ad-supported Spotify).
Further breakouts indicated that paid subscriptions have become the leading format for music revenue with year-over-year growth of 33% bringing revenue from subscription services to $2.5 billion, or approximately 75% of streaming.
However, despite the performance of the pay-to-play aspect of streaming, ad-supported content delivery also saw growth. Per the RIAA, revenues for music from services like YouTube, Vevo, and the ad-supported version of Spotify grew 21% year-over-year to $369 million.
Revenues from digital and customized radio services, including SoundExchange distributions for royalties from services like SiriusXM and internet radio stations, as well as direct deals for statutory services grew as well, but not as sharply, up by %13 percent over the first half of 2017.
Physical continued its slow slide into history during the first half of 2018, down 25% to $462 million. Revenue from compact discs, fell precipitously by 41% in the first half of the year, more than offsetting a 13% boost in revenues from sales of vinyl albums. All told, physical product represented just 10% of revenue for the industry in the first half of the year.
We are proud of the progress achieved so far and the integral role of record companies in helping foster a diverse streaming marketplace. The music streaming economy presents myriad new opportunities, but also its share of challenges too. According to Nielsen, more than 70,000 different albums were released by mid-year. Finding an audience amongst an extraordinary range of music choices, competing for the user’s attention against other entertainment options on the ubiquitous smartphone, and being prominent on dozens of different digital platforms is not only critical for success, those are attributes that uniquely reside within today’s record company,” said RIAA President Mitch Glazier.
