Paid subscriptions drive US streaming growth, up 27% in the first half of 2021 versus the prior year, from $5.6 to $7.1 billion at retail value. Figures released by the RIAA show that paid subscriptions continued to be the strongest contributor to growth, comprising nearly two-thirds of total revenue, and more than 80 million paid subscriptions for the first time. At wholesale value revenues rose 25%, from $3.7 billion in 1H 2020 to $4.6 billion in 1H 2021. The effects of COVID-19 continued to affect the industry, and year-over-year comparisons are significantly impacted by store closures, tour cancellations, and other disruptions from both 2020 and 2021.
Streaming revenues grew 26% to $5.9 billion in the first half of 2021 and accounted for 84% of total revenues for the period, about the same level as for 1H 2020. Paid subscriptions continued to account for the largest share of recorded music revenues in the US, up 26% year-over-year and totalling $4.6 Billion in 1H 2021. They accounted for nearly 2/3 of total revenues, and 78% of streaming revenue. That carries forward a multiyear trend of strong growth in this area extending beyond the unique circumstances of 2020 – in the two years since 1H 2019, paid subscription revenues have grown a total of 40%.
The number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music streaming services continued to increase. For 1H 2021, the average number of subscriptions reached a record 82 million, up 13% compared with 73 million for 1H 2021. These figures count multi-user plans as a single subscription, and exclude limited-tier services.
Advertising supported on-demand streaming music revenues (from services like YouTube, the ad-supported version of Spotify, and Facebook) rebounded significantly in 1H 2021, growing 54% to $741 million. This category only grew 3% the prior year as it was significantly impacted by the post COVID-19 decline in advertising revenue growth across many forms of media. Even though these services account for hundreds of billions of streams to more than 100 million listeners in the United States, the category only accounted for 11% of total revenues.
Digital and customized radio service revenues, such as SiriusXM and internet radio stations grew 3% to $585 million in 1H 2020. Permanent downloads declined both in absolute dollars as well as share of total revenue. In 1H 2021, revenues from digital downloads fell 6% by value to $319 million, accounting for 5% of total revenues. Revenues from digitally downloaded tracks and albums were down 12% and 4% respectively from the same period the prior year.
Vinyl records continued a remarkable resurgence in the first half of 2021 with revenues from vinyl albums growing 94% to $467 million, though the comparison versus the prior year includes a period in which retail stores were significantly impacted by COVID-19, and Record Store Day 2020 was delayed and did not occur in the spring (as it did in 2021). Revenues from CDs increased 44% to $205 million, but still remain 19% lower than they were in 1H 2019. CDs only accounted for 30% of physical revenues, while vinyl accounted for more than 2/3 of physical format revenues.
The full report can be found here and a commentary by Mitch Glazier, Chairman and CEO, RIAA can be found here.
