Amaya Toman For the first time ever, paid streaming services account for half of all music industry revenue in the United States. There was a 32% increase for them to a total of 5,4 billion dollars. This is stated in the annual report of the RIAA association of recording companies in America. This number also includes services with certain restrictions, such as Pandora Plus or Amazon Prime Music.
Streaming services account for 75% of all revenue, totaling $7,4 billion. Download services, such as iTunes or Bandcamp, on the other hand, account for only 11%, somewhat surprisingly overshadowed by revenues from the sale of physical media, which took a bite of 12% of all profits. Many users prefer streaming via Spotify or Apple Music for a certain monthly fee, which costs them many times the same as an album purchased on iTunes.
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Partially ad-supported services (such as Spotify's free version) generated a total of $760 million. Digital radio station services, including Pandora, saw revenue rise 32% to a total of $1,2 billion.
Apple announced in January this year that Apple Music had reached 50 million subscribers worldwide. Its biggest competitor Spotify reported a respectable 87 million paying customers last November, with the number of those using its free version said to be much higher.
Source: RIAA
