RIAA data analysis by Joshua P. Friedlander,
Senior Vice President, and Matthew Bass,
Director, Research and Gold & Platinum Operations
Music revenues from advertising supported on-demand
services (such as YouTube, the ad-supported version of
Spotify, Facebook, and others) grew at a slower pace than
previous recent years, up 6% to $1.8 billion. This builds on
a rapid rebound in 2021 compared with Covid-19 impacted
levels in 2020. Ad supported services contributed 11% of
total 2022 recorded music revenues.
Digital and customized radio music revenues grew 2% to
$1.2 billion in 2022. The category includes SoundExchange
distributions for revenues from services like SiriusXM and
internet radio stations, as well as payments directly paid
by similar services, included in this report as “other ad-
supported streaming”. SoundExchange distributions fell
3% to $959 million, while other ad-supported streaming
revenues of $261 million were up 28%.
DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
Revenues from digitally downloaded music continued to
decline in 2022, down 20% to $495 million. Both digital
album sales and individual track sales were down 20% to
$242 and $214 million respectively. Downloads accounted
for just 3% of U.S. recorded music revenues in 2022, down
from a peak of 43% of revenues in 2012.
PHYSICAL PRODUCTS
Revenues from physical music formats continued to grow
after their remarkable resurgence in 2021. Total physical
revenues of $1.7 billion were up 4% versus the prior year.
Revenues from vinyl records grew 17% to $1.2 billion – the
sixteenth consecutive year of growth – and accounted for
71% of physical format revenues. For the first time since
1987, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (41 million vs 33
million). After a 2021 rebound versus the Covid impacted
2020, revenues from CDs fell 18% to $483 million in 2022.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 5
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NOTE – A minor methodology modification for calculation of
total streaming revenues was incorporated for 2022 data and
applied to historical 2021 data for consistency. Additional data
updates were incorporated for historical data for 2018 – 2021.
Formats with no retail value equivalent included at wholesale
value. RIAA presents the most up-to-date information available
in its industry revenue reports and online statistics database:
https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database
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FIGURE 4
The number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music
services continued to grow at double digit rates and reach new
highs in 2022. The average number of subscriptions for the
year grew 10% to 92.0 million, compared with an average
of 84.0 million for 2021. These figures exclude limited-tier
services, and count multi-user plans as a single subscription.