Latest figures from the US recorded music industry association, the RIAA, show continued growth in the first half of 2018 with retail sales up 10% to $4.6 billion. Streaming continued to be the engine for growth increasing 28% year on year to $3.4 billion and representing 75% of all revenues. Physical sales and downloads continued to decline with CD unit sales dropping a whopping 46.9% from 35 million to 18.6 million units. Vinyl sales continued their niche growth up 12.6% to 8.1 million LPs and EPs.
Streaming
Revenues from streaming music grew 28% year on year to $3.4 billion for the first half of 2018 and now makes up 75% of all music revenues. Paid subscriptions now make up the largest component of streaming revenues with 46.4 million subscribers accounting for three quarters of streaming revenue.
Advertising supported on-demand revenues for music from services like YouTube, Vevo, and the ad-supported version of Spotify grew 21% year on year to $369 million. While Nielsen reported that these services streamed hundreds of billions of songs to fans in the US in 1H 2018, revenues from ad-supported on-demand platforms make up only 11% of total streaming revenues.
Digital Downloads and physical products
While streaming revenues continue to increase, digital downloads and physical sales continue their decline. Digital download sales fell 27% in 1H 2018 to $562 million, the lowest level in more than a decade. Individual track sales revenues were down 28% year on year, and digital album revenues declined 26%. Digital downloads accounted for just 12% of total industry revenues in 1H 2018.
Shipments of physical products decreased 25% to $462 million in the first half of 2018, a higher rate of decline than in recent years. Revenues from CDs fell by 41% and unit sales by 46.9% in the first half of the year, more than offsetting a 13% increase in revenues from sales of vinyl albums. Revenues from shipments of physical products made up only 10% of the industry total in the first half of 2018.
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