Data on recorded music industry revenue in the United States from 2009 to 2023 shows steady growth from 2015 onwards. The revenue reached 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, up from the 10.3 billion reported in the previous year. Music is the revenue driver of the audio market With music being part of everyday life as well as a popular form of entertainment, it has been the most popular audio format and is likely to remain the revenue driver of the industry. Global recorded music revenue alone generated a total of 28.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. In the United States, recorded music industry revenue amounted to 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, which is more than twice as much compared to 2009. Streaming is dominating music consumption Over the years, streaming has become increasingly popular, overtaking other forms of music consumption. Especially physical sales of music have experienced a sharp drop in numbers, only slightly recovering in recent years. Nonetheless, while streaming is by far the most popular way of consumption, the boom it has experienced over the last 10 years or so seems to be slowing down. In 2022, global music streaming revenue only grew by 11.5 percent, which is a significant drop from the growth rate of 24.3 percent in the year before.

In 2024, physical music sales generated 4.8 billion U.S. dollars, whereas digital music sales made 0.8 billion worldwide. The majority of global music revenue now comes from streaming, and accounted for more than 20 billion U.S. dollars in total industry revenue in 2024.

In 2024, streaming revenues reached **** billion U.S. dollars worldwide, the highest ever recorded and nearly ***** times the figure given for 2015, when music streaming revenue amounted to *** billion. Streaming revenues now account for over ** percent of total global recorded music revenue. The music industry is changing Over the last two decades, the music industry has been heavily impacted by the development of technology and the internet. Physical sales were the main source of revenue in the music industry before digital formats were invented. Even in 2000, U.S. album shipments still amounted to around *** million U.S. dollars before dropping each year until the figure stood at just ** million in 2023. This development is also mirrored in music industry revenue trends. Streaming has dramatically increased its share of U.S. music industry revenue, making up ** percent in 2023, up by almost ** percent from the figure recorded in 2017. Meanwhile, the share of music revenue generated by physical sales has decreased in equal measures, and in 2022 accounted for just ** percent of the total. Streaming platforms With over 700 million paying music subscribers worldwide, streaming platforms have become an essential part of the music industry’s landscape. Swedish streaming giant Spotify has dominated the market for years and commands roughly one third of music streaming subscribers globally. On the other hand, Apple Music, making up **** percent of the market, and Amazon with **** percent, have struggled to keep up with Spotify’s growing audience. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Spotify’s revenue from its premium subscribers hit *** billion euros and the climbing number of ad-supported users brought in an additional *** million euros. By comparison, just seven years earlier in the corresponding quarter of 2016, Spotify’s premium subscriber revenue was *** million euros and its ad-supported revenue just at nearly *** million euros.

In 2024, global music revenue generated by digital music and downloads continued its decline compared to recent years, at the level of 0.8 billion U.S. dollars. It was the lowest figure reported since 2005. Music streaming is still in the lead The music industry has undergone fundamental changes due to the shifts in consumer demand and behavior. In 2024, global recorded music revenue hit an all-time high of around 29.6 billion U.S. dollars, and while this figure was partially fueled by the revival of the live music sector, the top driver of growth was streaming. Music streaming accounted for an estimated 69 percent of industry revenues in 2024, whereas digital downloads contributed less than three percent to the annual total. Audiences have come to prefer access models over ownership in recent years, which is no surprise considering the extensive range of titles available for a set rate on platforms like Spotify. Best-selling titles Most music lovers listen to their favorite tracks and discover new artists via streaming platforms. And yet, some fans also choose to pay for individual music purchases, be it via digital downloads or in physical formats. In 2023, Seventeen's “FML” was the best-selling music album worldwide, with over six billion units sold. The K-pop band featured two of its albums in the same ranking that year. However, when it comes to vinyl, Taylor Swift led the ranks there. Her albums took up the top three spots on a list oftop-selling vinyl albums that same year.

Music streaming revenue has increased astronomically in the last ten years alone – growing from 1.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to 14.9 billion in 2024. Streaming has become a popular pastime for U.S. music fans and a major source of revenue for the industry, though many traditional consumers lament the resulting decline of physical music formats. Physical CD shipments have dwindled, whilst digital music platforms are flourishing.  The world of digital music   Platforms like Spotify have millions of users worldwide, and millions of tracks are streamed via the service each week. In the U.S., more than 25 percent of adults under the age of 35 are Spotify users, as well as almost 20 percent of adults aged 55 or above. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of digital music revenue in the United States is derived from subscriptions and streaming, and successful musicians like Drake, Eminem, and Ariana Grande  amass billions of streams each year.  Whilst many artists in the music industry generate most of their income from touring, streaming is also incredibly lucrative, generating millions of dollars in earnings.  

Streaming music revenue in the United States has been increasing dramatically on an annual basis for several years now, and in the first half of 2024 amounted to around *** billion U.S. dollars. According to the source, paid subscription revenues were the industry's main revenue source, accounting for *** billion dollars of the total. Streaming has overtaken other forms of music consumption Since the introduction of music streaming, the format has taken the music world by storm and is now dominating the industry. In the United States, streaming made up ** percent of the music industry’s revenue, compared to ** percent of physical sales and ***** percent of digital downloads. However, while streaming is still the revenue driver of the music market, growth has significantly slowed down, reaching a growth rate of **** percent in 2022. While this is still significant growth, it is a drop from the streaming revenue growth rate of **** percent in 2021. Spotify is dominating the streaming market With over ** million paid music subscribers in the United States alone, it is no wonder that there are various streaming services competing for market dominance. So far, the most popular streaming service has been Spotify. In 2022, ** percent of respondents stated that they used Spotify most frequently. The Swedish streaming giant generated a revenue of **** million euros in 2022.

The statistic provides information on the music industry revenue in the United States from 2012 to 2015, as well as a forecast for 2016 to 2021. According to the source, the revenue will grow from 15.87 billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to 22.61 billion in 2021. In the first half of 2016, 47 percent of the revenue in the music industry came from streaming and a further 31 percent was derived from permanent downloads. Subscription and streaming digital music revenue in the United States was worth over 3.83 billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

A recent study exploring the global music industry found that revenues from live music events grew by 25 percent in 2023, reaching over 33 billion U.S dollars that year. The market estimates are showing promising growth to pre-pandemic levels and revenue figures surpassing 50 billion dollars by the end of 2030.

Concerts amid COVID-19

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the live music sector as concert venues closed, tours were halted, and festivals rescheduled. But while some events were canceled or postponed indefinitely, others were merely moved online to let music lovers enjoy performances by their favorite artists in a socially distant manner. In Europe, for example, the share of festivalgoers who watched a live music stream during coronavirus lockdowns stood at 60 percent, with a similar share of survey respondents stating they would happily pay to do so. Live stream concerts have become popular alternatives to in-person shows in recent years, and while some artists uploaded pre-recorded concert films to video streaming platforms, others took the virtual stage in gaming apps Fortnite or Roblox.

Most successful live music tours

The live music sector awoke from a deep slumber in 2021 as social distancing measures were loosened and travel bans lifted in many parts of the world. Two years later, looking at the top-grossing concert tours that year, Taylor Swift was taking over the concert market, with her tour's earnings reaching over one billion U.S. dollars. Beyonce's tour ranked second that year, however, the grosses trailed behind at the level of 500 billion dollars.

The statistic presents a forecast of the global digital music industry revenue in 2015 and 2020. The source projected the revenue will increase from 11.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 to 15.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. The digital music industry - additional information
The rise of the internet in the past two decades has dramatically changed the music industry on many levels, including how music is produced and distributed, how artists are discovered and promoted, as well as what exactly generates profit. One of the more positive aspects of music in the internet era is perhaps the existence of platforms such as YouTube or Sound Cloud, where unknown artist can be discovered and ultimately achieve commercial success, such as pop idol - Justin Bieber. He was only 12, when a producer found his profile by accident and brought him to international fame in only a few years. The major drawback of the digital world is the high rate of illegal music downloads, which have marred the industry on a global level, as well as the low costs of legal downloads, as compared to physical recording. As of 2014, the industry has witnessed a significant drop in sales of CDs, CSs, LPs and digital albums, from 500 million units in 2007 to 257 million units in 2014 in the United States alone. Many consider that the increase in popularity of legal digital downloads cannot make up for the loss, as digital music prices do not include manufacturing and transport costs, which further hurts musicians and labels. As of 2014, the U.S. music market has witnessed a growth of the digital share of music revenues from 2.9 percent to 71 percent. With some 37 million music tracks available as of June 2015, Apple’s iTunes Store is presently the largest music retailer in the world. At the time of its launch in 2003, it revolutionized the industry with its payable downloads, but the market is moving more and more to another type of digital consumption: streaming. Platforms such as Spotify, Pandora or Deezer offer limited free access to music, which is supported by ads, and subscription-based access to an almost unlimited number of popular tracks. As of June 2015, Spotify had 75 million monthly active users around the world, up from only 15 million two years prior. According to a recent forecast, digital music streaming is the fastest growing sector of the music industry, while physical recorded music is expected to experience a negative growth rate between 2013 and 2018.

While music streaming had been generating the vast majority of the global music market revenue for several years, in 2024, revenue from streaming also recorded the highest growth of all music segments, at 7.3 percent. In fact, music streaming dominated the digital music market at the expense of other formats, such as downloads and other digital or physical sales who were the only segments shrinking in revenue in 2024.

In 2019, global music industry revenues are expected to reach around 26 billion U.S. dollars in total, increasing by more than five billion dollars in the past five years. Digital music streaming has rapidly become the industry’s biggest revenue generator, accounting for over half of all revenue. The importance of physical sales and digital music downloads is expected to decrease further in the coming years while even more of the market’s revenues shift into streaming.

Streaming music

The growing popularity of music streaming subscriptions is especially evident when looking at the monthly active user count of some of the industry’s top services. As of 2018, both Spotify and Apple Music were nearing 50 million monthly active users, while services such as Pandora and SoundCloud reported numbers of well over 30 million.

Music industry

Although consumption habits have changed dramatically over the years, music has remained a crucial element of the entertainment industry around the world. In addition to recorded music, which accounts for the majority of the industry’s income, live music revenues amount to over ten billion U.S. dollars annually. Some of the world’s top selling artists such as Madonna and Elton John have certified sales in the hundreds of millions, further demonstrating the widespread appeal and influence of the industry and its artists.

According to a study from 2021, the total digital music revenue has steadily increased over the years and will continue to do so, reaching over 29 billion U.S. dollars revenue in 2025. The study also showed that after the years of the COVID-19 pandemic during which the live music sector experienced a significant loss in revenue, live music is likely to recover and reach its former level post pandemic with an estimated revenue of over 30 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.

In 2018, preliminary estimates suggested that the total revenue of the global music industry amounted to 53.77 billion U.S. dollars, up from just under 51 billion a year earlier. The figure is expected to consistently increase each year and surpass 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Since 2007, it appears that the physical revenue of the music industry in France is decreasing. In contrast, the digital revenue of the music industry continues to increase. In 2023, digital revenues recorded a revenue of 620 million euros. In 2027, the digital music revenue is expected to reach more than 1.4 billion U.S dollars. The rise of digital music over physical revenue In 2007, the revenue of physical music amounted to 662 million euros. Ten years later, the number went down to reach 298 million euros. This important decrease was followed by an impressive increase of the revenue of digital music in the country, which exceeded the revenue of the physical music market that same year for the first time. Indeed, from 50.8 million euros of revenue in 2007, digital music grew over the years to reach a turnover of 285 million euros in 2017. Similarly, the sales volume of music albums in stores in France has been decreasing over the past few years, while music streaming is becoming more popular with each passing year among consumers. Music streaming in France Online music streaming is becoming more and more popular. In 2018, around 30 percent of French consumers declared streaming music daily. The number of digital music users is expected to increase in the coming years. Those users seem to favor streaming compared to downloading, and online music streaming platforms like Deezer, Apple Music or Spotify are now used by a majority of French people.

The graph presents data on music streaming revenue worldwide from 2010 to 2015, broken down by type. Ad-supported music streaming revenue increased from 0.2 to 0.6 billion U.S. dollars in the presented period.

Music streaming revenue – additional information

The rise of the internet in the past two decades has dramatically changed the music industry on many levels. The popularity of streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and Rdio is one of these major changes in the industry. Currently, music streaming services have two main revenue streams: subscriptions and advertising. Since 2010, the music streaming industry has seen a rise in subscriptions revenue, which has become the main revenue stream for this business. In 2010, subscriptions generated about 300 million U.S. dollars in revenues for music streaming services. By 2015, this figure grew to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars. Ad-supported music streaming revenue has also seen a small increase during the same time period, going from 200 million U.S. dollars in 2010 to 600 million U.S. dollars in 2015. Overall, music streaming revenue worldwide showed optimistic figures in the last few years, as the growth rate has varied between 37.5 percent and 56 percent from 2010 to 2015.

In the U.S., the revenue from music streaming services has also grown at a fast pace since 2010, jumping from 500 million U.S. dollars that year to 2.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2015. This growth also had an impact on the music streaming revenue share in the U.S. In 2009, streaming services only accounted for five percent of the total music revenue in the country. This share grew to 34 percent in 2015, the highest figure to date. The coming years are promising for music streaming services in the country.

While other sources of digital music such as downloading and mobile music digital are forecast to see a small decline in the next years, music streaming services are projected to increase its revenue in the U.S.

Over the forecast period until 2027, the revenue is forecast to exhibit fluctuations among the two segments. Only in the segment Music Streaming, a significant increase can be observed over the forecast period. In this segment, the indicator exhibits a difference of 151.65 million U.S. dollars between 2018 and 2027. Find other insights concerning similar markets and segments, such as a comparison of average revenue per unit (ARPU) in Italy and a comparison of number of users in Italy. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The global music streaming industry continues to grow, with revenue rising by 7.3 percent in 2024, compared to the previous year. This increase, while significant, marks a substantial slowdown from the peak of 65.1 percent that revenue had grown year-on-year in 2016. Despite the deceleration, streaming now accounts for over 69 percent of total global recorded music revenue, highlighting its dominant position in the industry. Streaming's financial dominance Streaming revenues reached an all-time high of 20.4 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2024, nearly eight times the 2.6 billion recorded in 2015. This surge in streaming revenue has reshaped the music landscape, with physical sales declining dramatically. In the United States, streaming now makes up 84 percent of music industry revenue, a stark contrast to the mere 11 percent generated by physical sales in 2024. Market leader Spotify Spotify remains the dominant force in the streaming market, commanding 31.7 percent of global music streaming subscribers. The company's revenue has grown substantially, with premium subscriber revenue reaching close to four billion euros in the third quarter of 2024. However, Spotify faces challenges in achieving profitability, reporting significant operating losses in recent years. Despite these hurdles, the streaming market continues to expand, with Spotify reaching 640 million active users worldwide in the third quarter of 2024, a 12 percent increase year-over-year.

According to a 2020 study exploring the global music industry, worldwide live music sponsorship revenues will amount to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The projected figure for 2020 was *** billion U.S. dollars, with ticket sales for that year estimated at around ***** billion. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the live music industry have been extremely detrimental to revenue generation, affecting artists, venues, and events companies alike. Whilst it is anticipated that live will begin to recover in 2021, naturally this depends on the amount of venues able to reopen, the size of those venues, and the number of events allowed to take place.

Revenue in the music industry in Germany in 2024 amounted to round 2.38 billion euros. While physical sound carriers accounted for around 16 percent of sales, the digital segment accounted for around 84 percent.

In 2023, digital music sales generated revenues of roughly 1.8 billion euros. This was an increase of 1.7 billion euros the previous year.