US recorded music shipment revenues dipped slightly in 2013 by 0.3% to $7 billion, with digital music accounting for 64% ($4.4bn) of the total figure.
New RIAA data showing the retal value of the market shows that physical music sales were down 12% to $2.4bn in the year, claiming for 35% of the overall market.
Download sales claimed a 40% share, falling by just 1% to $2.8bn. Subscription / streaming income rose 39% to $1.4bn, accounting for 21% of total revenue. The US ended 2013 with 6.1m paying streaming subscribers, up from 3.4m at the end of 2012.
Elsewhere, ringtones/ringback services claimed 1% of revenues, while synch took core of 3%.
“Overall, 2013 sales results show the continuing emergence of streaming music models as meaningful contributors to industry revenues. As recently as 2009, 95% of US music industry revenues came from traditional purchasing (with the majority in physical formats),” says the RIAA’s report, which you can read in full through here.
“In 2013, 21% of revenues came from streaming models, where fans can listen to vast libraries of music either for free or as part of a subscription, and nearly 2/3 of total revenues came from digitally distributed formats. All of this shows the music industry today has grown into a diverse digital business teeming with a wide variety of innovative services catering to all types of music fans.”Music Business Worldwide
