The landscape of musical consumption continues to change, with a new report revealing that physical music was more popular than paid downloads last year.
For years now, the public has claimed that the rise of digital media will put an end to physical media as we know it. While the sales of CDs and vinyl undoubtedly fell in the wake of iTunes’ appearances on the scene, streaming has since taken over as the most popular method for musical consumption.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that while vinyl records and cassettes continue to see widespread appreciation from the music-buying public, CDs sales continue to fall.
However, it appears as though physical media may still be one of the most popular methods of purchasing music for the foreseeable future.
According to a new report released by the Recording Industry Association of America, the sale of downloadable media fell by 25 percent to $1.04 billion in 2018, marking the sixth consecutive year of falling sales for the media.
While the sale of full albums fell by 25 percent, individual song sales fell by 28 percent, resulting in a total of $490 million as opposed to $678 million in 2017.
On the physical side of things though, CD sales managed to fall by almost 34 percent, vinyl sales however spiked by over seven percent, bringing in more than $30m than in 2017.
Overall, while digital downloads fell by a total of 26 percent to bring in $1.04 billion, physical sales fell by only 22.8 percent, with total sales of more than $1.1 billion in 2018.
However, this should not really come as a surprise to anyone, with Apple having been focusing on Apple Music as a streaming platform for quite some time now, as reports they are planning to kill off their digital download service continue to swirl.
According to the RIAA’s report, it seems that streaming looks set to remain the most popular way to consume music for quite some time.
“For the third year in a row, double-digit growth was driven primarily by increased revenues from paid subscription services including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon and others, which reached more than 50 million subscriptions in the United States for the first time,” the report explained.
Sadly, this report does also happen to confirm that the days of the humble CD appear to be numbered, noting that sales of CDs has dropped to just $698 million, making it the first time revenue for the medium has dropped below one billion since 1986.
Check out Buggles’ ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ
