He The American music industry continued its solid growth in the first half of 2023, according to the RIAAThe latest mid-year report. Total revenue grew 9.3% based on estimated retail value, reaching a first-half all-time high of $8.4 billion; At wholesale value, revenue grew 8.3% to $5.3 billion.
Paid streaming subscriptions continued to be the biggest driver of revenue growth, according to the report, increasing by more than $550 million and reaching around 96 million subscriptions during the period.
Vinyl revenues stabilized and grew by only 1%. recorded a growth of 22% in the same period last year – but physical formats reached their highest level since the first half of 2013, a full decade ago. Total physical revenue of $882 million increased 5% year over year, with vinyl growing 1% to $632 million, representing about 72% of physical format revenue. For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (23 million vs. 15 million).
Total revenue from paid subscription services grew 11% to $5.5 billion, compared to 6% growth for the number of accounts. Nearly two-thirds of total revenue (and more than 75% of streaming revenue) came from paid subscription services.
Streaming revenue accounted for 84% of total US recorded music revenue, growing 10.3% to $7 billion, the fourth consecutive year in which streaming accounted for between 83 and 84% of total income. (This category includes paid subscription services, advertising-supported services, digital and personalized radio, and licenses for music on social networks and digital fitness applications.)
However, growth in the number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music services is slowing. The average number of subscriptions during the first six months of 2023 was 95.8 million, compared to 10% growth to 90 million in the first half of 2022 (these figures exclude limited tier services and count multi-user plans as a single plan). subscription.)
Revenue from ad-based music streaming services also grew at a slower pace than paid forms of streaming. On-demand services (like YouTube, the ad-supported version of Spotify, Facebook and others) rose just 1% to $870 million.
Digital and personalized radio music revenue grew 16% to $657 million in the first half of 2023. The category includes SoundExchange distributions for revenue from services like SiriusXM and Internet radio stations, as well as payments paid directly by similar services. SoundExchange distributions grew 7% to $498 million, while other ad-supported streaming revenue of $159 million rose 57%.
Finally, digital download revenue continued its long decline, falling 12% year over year to $225 million. Digital album sales fell 12% to $107 million, while individual song sales fell 14% to $97 million. Downloads accounted for just 3% of US recorded music revenue in the first half of 2023.