Data on recorded music industry revenue in the United States from 2009 to 2024 shows steady growth from 2015 onwards. The revenue reached over ** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up from the ***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 **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. In the United States, recorded music industry revenue amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, 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 **** percent, which is a significant drop from the growth rate of **** percent in the year before. In 2024, the recorded growth dropped to *******************.

Since the first records in 2006, sales of music consumed in digital format has only experienced growth, turning the tables of the audio format industry in 2016, year in which sales from music recorded digitally surpassed those of music in physical formats. In 2023, the sales value of digital music in Spain stood at ***** million euros, whereas physical formats amounted to only ** million euros during the same year. This represented an increase in the sales of music in physical formats compared to 2023. Streaming subscriptions – a gold mine for the music industry Streaming is the new downloading, according to the most recent figures. Most of the revenues generated from the digital music industry in Spain originated in streaming services, with a turnover that amounted to *** million euros in 2019 that was expected to reach *** million by the year 2025. These earnings were majorly a result of the distribution of streaming subscriptions, which returned revenues of about *** million euros during the same period. Spotify – the indisputable leader of music streaming There were more monthly searches on Spotify than on any other music streaming platform in Spain in 2018, as the latest data show. The Swedish media provider clocked up *** thousand searches per month on its platform in 2018, representing a much larger figure than the runner-up on the list, YouTube, which recorded ** thousand monthly searches throughout the same year. As reported by almost half of the Spaniards in 2020, these platforms are used mainly in their free-of-charge versions, with only ** percent of the population having a paid subscription to use their services.

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 *** 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.

The sales volume of digital music in Japan stood at ** million units in 2024, which was a decrease of *** million units compared to the previous year. As a breakdown of the sales volume by format shows, single tracks made up a much smaller part of the volume than albums. Despite the diminishing sales volume in recent years, the sales value of digital music steadily increased, which is a result of the growth of music streaming.

The global music industry continues to evolve, with streaming services dominating revenue sources in 2024. Subscription audio streams accounted then for more than half of the industry's revenue at **** percent, while ad-supported streams contributed an additional **** percent. This shift towards digital consumption has reshaped the landscape, pushing traditional formats like physical sales and downloads to smaller market shares. Streaming's dominance grows As streaming platforms solidify their position, they now represent ** percent of the total global recorded music revenue. This trend reflects changing consumer preferences, with audiences favoring access models over ownership. The extensive range of titles available on platforms like Spotify for a set rate has contributed to this shift. Despite the overall growth, digital downloads revenue have seen a decline, contributing less than **** percent to the annual total in 2024. Regional disparities in digital music revenue While streaming leads globally, the digital music market shows significant regional differences. The United States stands at the forefront with **** billion U.S. dollars in revenue from the digital music segment, followed by China at *** billion. France trails behind with *** billion dollars, highlighting the vast gap between markets. These disparities underscore the varying rates of digital music adoption and market maturity across different countries.

Digital music sales increased steadily at the expense of physical music sales in Finland from 2014 to 2024. As of 2024, digital music sales reached around 58.14 million euros, while physical music sales generated a revenue of approximately 4.29 million euros. At the beginning of the decade, physical sales still amounted to 17.56 million euros, and digital music only generated around 18.33 million euros in sales.

The revenue is forecast to experience significant growth in all regions in 2027. From the selected regions, the ranking by revenue in the 'Digital Music' segment of the digital media market is forecast to be led by the United States with **** billion U.S. dollars. In contrast, the ranking is trailed by Switzerland with ****** million U.S. dollars, recording a difference of **** billion U.S. dollars to the United States. Find other insights concerning similar markets and segments, such as a comparison of user penetration in Vietnam and a comparison of countries or regions regarding number of users. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Over the period from 2014 to 2024, recorded music sales in Finland fluctuated between ** and ** million euros. The sales figures peaked at approximately ***** million euros in 2024. In 2014, the music sales dropped below ** million euros, but increased again in the following years.

Revenue in the music industry in Germany in the first half of 2025 amounted to round 1.16 billion euros. While physical sound carriers accounted for around 12.5 percent of sales, the digital segment accounted for around 87.5 percent.

Streaming accounted for 84 percent of the U.S. music industry's revenue in 2024, up from 65 percent in 2017 and marking an increase of nearly 20 percent in that period. During the same time period, the share of revenue generated by digital downloads decreased significantly.

The statistic presents data on music album sales in the United States from 2008 to 2014, broken down by genre. In 2014, **** million Latin music albums were sold in the U.S. The most popular genre of the year was rock with ***** million albums sold. Country music was still very popular in the United States: in 2014, ***** million country albums albums sold, outselling such genres as pop and dance. On the whole, there were ***** million music albums sold in the United States in 2015, a number which fell to just over *** million in 2016. Here you can find out which genres reported largest growth between 2009 and 2014.

Most popular music genre in the United States - additional information

Music made the transition from private pastime to a multi-billion industry as the widespread adoption of mass distribution channels, such as radio and TV, gained popularity over the years. Specialized music TV channels, such as MTV in the *****, added the visual aspect which enhanced the power of music. The internet then came to supply free videos on YouTube, as well as the gossip and the “who wore it better” columns, in order to craft industry superstars, like Beyoncé, Dr.Dre, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. In fact, Taylor Swift is the musician with the highest payroll in the world; rock artists such as AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen also appear in the top positions in the ranking.

The United States is not only home of many other internationally acclaimed artists, but it is also the origin of famous music genres such as jazz, country, blues, rock 'n' roll, hip hop, and pop. An online survey conducted in the U.S. points out that the most popular music genre in the U.S. is rock, with ** percent of respondents choosing this option. The second and third most listened to music genres are oldies and country respectively, while hip hop/rap is favored by a smaller niche of American listeners. Rock is also the favorite road trip music of American travelers. This preference is reflected in album sales, where rock albums have outsold all the other music genres since 2008.

However, the sales of physical music album reflect just part of the consumption of this particular genre in the United States. Physical albums account for about ** percent of rock’s music consumption, while ** percent of rock music consumers prefer digital formats, for instance, digital albums or streaming services. As the consumption of digital music gains popularity, sales of music albums of all genres have been sinking, going from *** million units sold in 2007 to around *** million units sold in 2016.

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

In 2023, Mexico's recorded music revenue increased by nearly ** percent, while Brazil's rose **** percent. Latin America's recorded music revenue average growth rate stood slightly above ** percent that year.

Overall, the music industry in Poland has seen an increase in revenue between 2018 and 2019. Physical music sales have seen an increase of nearly two percent. Digital sales, on the other hand, have increased significantly.

In 2023, Swedish music sales revenue was at *** billion for digital streaming services, which constituted ** percent of all music sales. It has steadily increased within the past ten years. While the revenue amounted to roughly ** million kronor in 2009, it is now nearing two billion as of 2023.

The statistic shows the average digital music streaming sales per capita in selected countries worldwide in 2017. According to the source, average music streaming sales in Germany amounted to **** euros per capita in 2017.

This statistic shows the revenue of the music industry in Sweden from 2013 to 2017, with a forecast to 2022. As of 2017, the music industry in Sweden generated a revenue of roughly 4.9 billion Danish kroner and was expected to reach revenues of almost six billion Danish kroner in 2022.

The Swedish music market generated the most revenues from live music - in 2017, revenues from concerts amounted to approximately 6.2 billion Swedish kronor. Recorded music's receipts was only about two billion Swedish kronor.

When it comes to the format, streaming was the most valuable one in Sweden in the 1st half of 2016 - almost 470 million Swedish kronor were generated in this segment. The physical formats CDs with roughly 44.15 million Swedish kronor and vinyl/LPs (about 19.13 million Swedish kronor) ranked second and third respectively.

In 2024, recorded music revenues in the Middle East and North Africa grew by **** percent, making this the fastest growing region among the seven taken into consideration in an annual report. The second-fastest growing region in terms of revenue was Sub-Saharan Africa, who followed closely behind with a growth of **** percent. Latin America, in turn, followed closely behind as well, having grown by **** percent. By contrast, the revenue growth in the rest of the world remained in single digits.

According to the digital music sales revenue in Canada from 2015 to 2020, digital music sales totaled 521 million Canadian dollars. While sales in the area of downloads and mobile and digital decreased from 2019 to 2020, streaming increased and attributed for 343 million.

According to a study from 2024 on music sales revenue at retail in the United Kingdom, in 2011, music retail sales revenue exceeded **** billion British pounds and has increased to over *** billion British pounds in 2024.