Music Streaming Helped The Industry To Grow By 16.5%

• Music streaming helped make $8.72 billion in revenue for the music industry.
• Revenues are up by 16.5% when compared to the previous year. The music industry is seeing a double-digited growth for two years in a row.
• The major chunk of the profit came as a result of consumers' decision to start paying for their on-demand music listening privileges.

In all honesty, recorded music rarely sales, yet it is a billion-dollar business in the US, and the revenues are still climbing. The Recording Industry Association of America or the RIAA, in short, has released their annual year-end report sighting that revenues from recorded music grew by 16.5% with much thanks to music streaming.

According to the report, the industry saw revenues climb up to $8.72 billion in 2017 from $7.5 billion (approx.) in 2016. This concludes a double-digit growth for two consecutive years, with no signs of slowing down. In fact, following the current trend, it won’t be too far-fetched to see the music industry incur a 20% revenue growth in 2018.

Music streaming accounted for 65% of all the revenues that came from recorded music. In fact, just from streaming alone, the music industry made $5.7 billion in 2017, which is a big jump from $4 billion in 2016, previously tailed by $2.3 billion in 2015. The rate of growth is by no means short of being phenomenal.

Image Courtesy of Rolling Stones

Most of the money made by the industry came from consumers who have decided to start paying for their on-demand music streaming privileges. Music streaming has around 35 million paying consumers who contributed to about $4.1 billion to the industry. Meanwhile, the consumers who are using a free, ad-supported subscription to streaming music helped generate around $659 million in 2017. Granted this might not be much in comparison, but still, it is up by 33% from 2016.

The only area to see a fall in revenues would be the “digital and customized radio services,” like SiriusXM and other internet radio stations. They managed to bring in around $1 billion which is lower when compared to their 2016 performance.