Music streaming now accounts for 75% of record label revenue, RIAA says

Vinyl is also still on the rise, accounting for one-third of all physical sales revenue.

Record label revenues are up to $9.8 billion, a level not seen since pre-recession times. 75% of that revenue comes from music streaming ($7.4 billion), showing just how reliant record labels have become on streaming platforms for revenue. Digital downloads have fallen to 11% of income, down from 42% in 2013. Physical music also overtook digital downloads as the second largest source of income. 

The data comes from a report by the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of America. The $7.4 billion figure brought in by streaming services also accounted for almost all of the revenue growth in the business as well. The number of paid subscriptions grew 42% to 50.2 million, a number so large that it is now being broken down by discounted, full-paid, free trial, and family plans.

The vinyl revival accounts for over 7% growth in last year’s sales ($419 million). While it became one-third of physical sales in the US, the driving factor of its dominant market position is CD sales bottoming out. CD sales fell by 34% to $698 million, the first time revenues from CDs were less than one billion dollars since 1986.