In total, the RIAA says that music revenue in the United States grew by 6% in 2022, to a new record high of $15.9 billion. This marks the sixth year in a row of growth for the industry. In total, streaming accounted for 84% of that revenue, followed by physical sales at 11%, digital downloads at 3%, and synchronization royalties at 2%.
Here’s the breakdown of that streaming and physical revenue:
- Physical products: $1.7 billion (up 4% year-over-year)
- CDs: $483 million (down 18% year-over-year)
- Vinyl: $1.2 billion (up 17% year-over-year)
- Streaming: $13.3 billion (up 7% year-over-year)
- Paid subscription services: $10.2 billion (up 8% year-over-year)
- Limited-tier subscriptions (services limited by things like mobile access, catalog availability, etc): $1.1 billion (up 18% year-over-year)
- Ad-supported streaming: $108 billion (up 6% year-over-year)
According to the RIAA, the average number of streaming subscriptions for the year grew 10% to 92 million, compared with an average of 84 million for 2021. “These figures exclude limited-tier services, and count multi-user plans as a single subscription,” the RIAA adds.
For digital downloads (such as those via iTunes):
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.
And for physical formats:
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.
