Music Sales
Streaming Is Growing — Just Not Like It Used To: 5 Takeaways From the RIAA Mid-Year Report
The music subscription market, the driving force behind the U.S. recorded music industry’s six-year growth streak, posted another gain in the first half of 2022, according to RIAA midyear figures released Wednesday (Sept. 21). But revenue from paid services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music have slowed from earlier break-neck paces. After rising at double-digit growth rates in recent years, subscription revenue grew by only 9.4% in the first half of 2022, down from 11.3% at the mid-point of 2021 and 13.7% at the mid-point of 2020. The $387.6 million increase, to $4.5 billion, was less than half of the $823.5 million reported a year earlier, a period in which streaming services surged during the early pandemic’s lock-down periods and strict restrictions. Still, subscription rev...
Cardi B Becomes First Female Rapper with Diamond Single for “Bodak Yellow”
Cardi B turned “bloody shoes” into a diamond on the wall. Her breakout single “Bodak Yellow” has been RIAA-certified diamond, making her the first female rapper to ever achieve the feat. The artist born Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar teased fans with the news late last night by posting a video on Twitter. She had been working on her upcoming Grammys performance, she said, when she learned of an unplanned meeting with Atlantic Records. As she explained, “I’ve been rehearsing all day today, I’m really stressed out, my body’s aching. At rehearsal, they said to me, ‘Yo, you gotta meet up with Atlantic execs.’ I’m like, ‘Yo I’m fucking tired like I don’t wanna talk about no Grammys, I don’t wanna talk about no album, I’m just tired.’ And then I still got drove to a restaurant. I’m like, ‘Are y...
Hip-Hop, Latin & Vinyl’s Popularity Grew in 2020 (Rock, Pop & CDs’ Did Not)
Roddy Ricch’s “The Box” (via Atlantic) was the top streaming song in 2020 with 1.3 billion on-demand streams, beating out Future’s “Life Is Good” featuring Drake (via Epic), which had 1 billion on-demand streams. Lil Baby’s My Turn (via Quality Control) was the No. 1 album for the year, generating 2.6 million consumption units, with Taylor Swift’s folklore (via Republic) coming in second at 2.2 million album consumption units — of which 1.3 million were from sales (including 796,000 from downloads), making it the year’s best-selling album. In fact, Swift placed four albums in the year’s top 200 albums, as her Lover album ranked No. 33 with 878,000 album consumption units; evermore was No. 70 with 569,000 units and 1989 was No. 116 with 428,000 units. For the 21st year in a...
UK Cassette Sales Have Doubled in 2020
In the latest proof that younger generations are just as insufferably nostalgic as Baby Boomers, cassette tape sales are on the rise. The US market has grown by as much as 35% in recent years, with over 219,000 tapes sold in 2018. But that’s nothing compared to the surge seen in the UK, where, according to the Official Charts company, sales have more than doubled in 2020. So far this year, Englanders have purchased 65,000 cassette tapes, an increase of 103% (!) compared to the same period last year. UK sales overall are on pace to top 100,000 for the first time since 2003. Cassette tapes, it should be noted, suck. It’s the second-worst audio format of the last 50 years, surpassing only the execrable 8-track, and coming in well south of the fidelity offered by CDs and vinyl. Peaking in popu...
