Online music streaming accounted for the largest share of U.S. music-industry revenues for the first time in 2015, nudging ahead of downloads, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reported.
The U.S. music industry posted a 0.9 percent gain in estimated retail-level dollar volume to $7.02 billion, with the gain attributable to 28.8 percent growth in streaming volume, to $2.41 billion. Streaming volume exceeded $2 billion for the first time.
Sales of digital downloads and physical media were down.
With the shifts, streaming accounted for 34.3 percent of retail-level dollar volume, a tad more than download’s 34 percent share and ahead of physical media’s 28.8 percent share. Combined streaming and download volume accounted for 70 percent of industry sales, up from 2014’s 67 percent.
