Music sales in Spain grew by 12.4% in first half of 2022 with LPs now outselling CDs where physical format sales have stagnated according to Promusicae, the Spanish record industry association.
Spaniards spent €191.5 million on music consumption, both in digital and physical formats that represents a 12.4% growth for the Spanish music industry, compared to the same period of 2021 (€170.5 million).
Digital sales were the main contributor to the increase in sales with a 15.2% increase in streaming which now represents 87% of the whole market, an increase of 2% compared to 2021. Digital sales were €166.5 million in the first half of this, a 14.6% increase on the previous year (€145.3 million). 81.2% of these revenues come from audio streaming, in premium and ad-supported subscriptions tiers (€135.2 million), and 17.1% from video streaming (€28.5 million). The remaining 1.7% is a mixed bag of permanent downloads of tracks, albums and video and mobile phone products (ring and key tones).
Despite the positive results, the digital market growth rate has slowed down significantly regarding the two previous years (in 2020 the rise was 19% and in 2021 it was 20%); and specially if it is compared with the rates before the pandemic, as in 2019 the growth was above 30%.
Following the post COVID rebound in physical sales in the first half of 2021 caused by the closure of shops and the lockdown in 2020, sales in the first half of this year have seen physical sales stagnate and, in fact, fall slightly (-0.6%). Sales of physical products went from €25.2 million in first half of 2021 to €25 million which is still at a lower level than before the pandemic (€32.7 million in H1 2019). This is despite a spectacular growth in sales of vinyl, which showed an increase of 25.6% and revenues of €13.6 million. 54% of physical discs now sold in shops are vinyl and have exceed the sales of CDs for the first time since 1991. CD sales represented 44% of physical product sales, a decrease of 20.8% and yielding only €11.1 million.
There is an infographic summarising all these figures in Spanish here.
