US music streaming up 16.2% in first six months of 2020 with 419.8 Bn streams so far this year according to a report from Nielsen Music/MRC Data. At the beginning of the year audio streaming was growing through early March, up 20.4% over the same period in 2019.
Total music consumption was up 14.6% in the first 10 weeks of the year. As working from home became a reality for many due to COVID-19, some of the key music listening hours, such as during commutes, were disrupted. In recent consumer research studies by the company, 73% of people said they would go crazy without entertainment during this time.
Whilst streaming was on the up, album sales were down 18.1% during the first six months of 2020 and physical album sales declined by a fifth (20.3) with 7.9 million units sold. Surprisingly vinyl album sales increased from 8.3 million to 9.2 million – a 11.2% increase. Digital albums and digital song downloads continued their decline at -14.3% and -23.3% respectively.
After the death of George Floyd on the 25th May and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement there was renewed interest in songs about injustice and rebellion against politicians and police. Comparing the average daily audio streams for 22-27 May against 28th May to the 6th June, Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ saw a 268.5% increase with 646,00 streams and Killer Mike’s ’Don’t Die’ had a staggering 7,616% increase in plays.
The top five Pop artists in the first six months of 2020 are Billie Eilish, BTS, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Halsey. The top Hip Hop artists over the period are Drake, The Weeknd, Lil Uzi Vert, Post Malone and Youngboy Never Broke Again.
The report contains a wealth of statistics detailing audio streams, album sales and radio plays together with charts of top plays split out by genre. The 36 page report, Midyear Report U.S. 2020 can be download for free here.
