US Music Industry Revenue Reaches The Highest Point Of All Time

Illustration (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Revenue in the United States music industry has reached its highest level since the recording began, according to a mid-year earnings report by the American Recording Industry Association.

Retail revenue, which includes revenue from consumer streaming services, jumped 9.3 percent to an all-time high in the first half of 8.4 billion US dollars, while wholesale income rose 8.3 percent to 5.3 billion US dollars.

Streaming revenue increased 10.3 percent from last year, reaching 7 billion US dollars, which is 84 percent of music revenue in the United States.

RIAA explicitly noted that although revenue from paid subscriptions grew 11 percent to 5.5 billion US dollars, the total number of paid subscriptions only grew 6 percent.

This is likely due to Spotify raising its premium subscription price for the first time in history.

The black plate continues to enjoy revenue growth, with physical format reaching its highest revenue since 2013. However, compared to streaming revenue, the amount is relatively smaller, which is US$882 million.

In total, 72 percent of physical media sales are black disks, resulting in 632 million US dollars out of that amount. Overall, 23 million albums sold last year in a disk format compared to 15 million CDs.