The increase was due mainly to gains in streaming revenue and a jump in vinyl sales – though growth was down significantly from other post-pandemic years.
The U.S. recorded music market grew a little bigger in the first half of 2024 — but not by much. The retail value of total industry revenue reached $8.65 billion, according to RIAA figures released Thursday (Aug. 29), thanks mainly to a modest gain in streaming revenue and a jump in vinyl sales.
While the period’s revenue is a record for the first half of a year, it marked just a 3.9% gain from the prior year’s period. The U.S. market has returned to a more workmanlike trajectory, putting high-single digit and double-digit gains in the rear-view mirror. By contrast, revenue was up 8.8% and 9.0% in the first half of 2022 and 2023, respectively. In the first half of 2021, as paid and ad-supported streaming benefitted from pandemic-era lockdowns that drove consumers to their devices, revenue rocketed 27.0%.
Vinyl EP and LP sales totaled 24.3 million units, up 10.7%, and were valued at $739.9 million, up 17%. Other physical formats gained, too, but the distance between them and vinyl grew larger. CD sales improved just 0.3% to $236.7 million. The other category—encompassing cassettes, CD singles, vinyl singles, DVD audio and SACD—improved 66.6% to $13.2 million.
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Physical sales increased its percentage of total revenue to 11.4% from 10.5% in the prior-year period and 10.2% in the first half of 2022. Vinyl has doubled its share of the market in five years, reaching 8.5% of total U.S. revenue — up from 4.2% in the first half of 2020.
Streaming still dominates industry revenue and provided the single-biggest dollar gain of all the categories. Total streaming revenue grew 3.8% to $7.3 billion and accounted for 84.1% of total revenue, equal to the year-ago period. Paid subscription revenue hit $5.23 billion, up 5.1%, leading all streaming categories by a wide margin. The average number of subscribers reached 99 million, up just 2.6%, suggesting record labels benefitted from price increases by Spotify and other services.
Other streaming segments had a smaller impact or lost ground over the past year. Limited-tier paid subscription revenue dropped 4.1% to $503 million. (Limited-tier services have limited catalogs, interactivity restrictions or other factors that differ from premium subscription plans.) Ad-supported, on-demand revenue rose 2.5% to $899 million. SoundExchange distributions were $517 million, up 3.9%. Other ad-supported streaming—statutory streaming services not distributed by SoundExchange—fell 2.7% to $159.1 million.
Download sales, once the cornerstone of the U.S. market, declined in share for the 14th straight year and amounted to just 2% of industry revenue. Total download sales fell 15.8% to $189.7 million. Track and digital album sales fell 16.1% and 18.5%, respectively. Ringtones and ringbacks dropped 51.1% to $2.9 million. The other digital category, which includes kiosks and music video downloads, grew 22.0% to $17.1 million.
Synchronization royalties dropped 9.8% to $200.9 million, a sharp contrast to sizable gains of 25.3% and 29.9% in the first half of 2022 and 2023, respectively.
In a statement, RIAA chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier highlighted revenue reaching a record $8.7 million and the evolving music ecosystem. “Spanning multiple licensing avenues from fitness apps to short-form video, artists and labels are embracing innovation with responsible partners so more Americans can engage with their favorite music however, whenever and wherever they choose,” he said. “This sustained growth fuels innovation and reflects music’s incredible value, laying the foundation for a healthy creative ecosystem where artists’ and songwriters’ visions can flourish over generations.”
