With the rise of streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, one might think that the concept of music ownership is a thing of the past. Yet vinyl records and CDs refuse to die. In fact, they’re still very much alive.
As revealed in a new report by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), physical music hasn’t gone anywhere. While most of today’s music revenue comes from streaming platforms, as you might imagine, a bit of it is still coming from physical media. Streaming makes up 84% of recorded music revenues, while physical media sits at a respectable 11% in comparison. Digital downloads contribute much less, at 3%.
Out of all physical music formats, LPs and EPs (vinyl) actually make up the majority of sales, followed closely by CDs. Vinyl has been making a bit of a resurgence lately, mostly for the charm of collecting and playing modern music on a decades-old vinyl player, so this is no surprise—2022 was actually the first year when vinyl surpassed CDs as the best-selling music format. Still, both vinyl and CDs are going strong in 2023 and show no signs of slowing down.
It should also be noted that while cassettes still exist and are available on store shelves just like vinyl discs and CDs, cassette sales are not tracked by the RIAA. It’s safe to say that cassettes don’t enjoy the same degree of popularity the other two formats currently enjoy, and although some people buy tapes, it’s not enough to account for anything other than a rounding error. The RIAA hasn’t kept track of cassettes since 2008.
Also, just 0.1% of physical sales in 2023 fall under the category of “Music Video (Physical).” With a quick search, we couldn’t find any music videos sold on a physical format (at least not newer ones), though concert films actually fall under the music video sales category. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’d know that one concert film in particular, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, was actually pretty popular last year and saw a limited physical release, so that could probably be at least a significant part of it.
Make sure to check the numbers yourself if you’re interested in this, as there are a lot of interesting details in the RIAA’s report.
Source: RIAA (1, 2) via The Verge
