Not long ago, music industry executives were losing sleep over how the age of online downloads would impact tangible album sales. It wasn’t long until the industry adapted by charging for downloads.
But now, a report by Nielsen SoundScan shows the industry might by undergoing yet another transformation.
Sales of downloaded albums and songs plummeted in 2014, while music streaming more than doubled in the U.S., the report said.
Paid downloads of albums and songs declined 9 and 12 per cent respectively. Americans purchased 257 million albums in 2014, 106.5 million of which were downloads.
Nielsen’s year-end report released Wednesday also said use of streaming on websites like Spotify and YouTube grew sharply to 164 billion songs—a 54 per cent increase from 2013.
But, as the Wall Street Journal notes, the music industry will need even bigger gains if it going to rely on streaming to make up for lost album sales.
The industry counts 1,500 song streams or 10 individual song downloads as an album sale. That means overall music consumption in the U.S. hasn’t changed significantly—only the method of consumption has.
Vinyl resurgence
Meanwhile, the industry appears to have also taken a step back in time, with vinyl records making a comeback.
In 2014, the 9.2 million vinyl albums sales were the highest since Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991. Sales last year were 52 per cent higher than in 2013.
Nielsen didn’t break out compact disc sales.
Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” was the best-selling song of the year in the U.S., with more than 6.4 million sold.
It was followed by John Legend’s “All of Me” and Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse.”
