80% of the US music market, streaming accounted for

The American Record Industry Association’s RIAA made it clear that sales of music streaming services in the U.S. reached 80% of the total in 2019, reversing their share of the music market for 10 years from 7% in 2010.

2010 is the year the iPhone 4 was released. According to RIAA statistics, at the time, music sales by physical media accounted for 52% of the total US market, 38% download sales and 7% music streaming. However, in 2019, as streaming growth overwhelmed other music, both physical media and download sales rates fell to 9%.

The music streaming service can be said to be Spotify and Apple Music, which started service in 2011 and 2014. Tidal and Pandora, YouTube Music, and Amazon Prime Music are following them. American smartphone ownership increased from 35% in 2010 to 85% in 2019, and it can be said that the ease of use that is much easier to use than converting and integrating music such as CDs on a PC has contributed significantly to the expansion of the music streaming market share.

While streaming penetration expanded, CD sales fell sharply. However, it is unlikely that the media for sale will disappear at all. Analog record sales, which were the pre-CD mainstream, continue to grow, with sales rising from $50 million in 2009 to $450 million in 2018. This tells us that there is a proportion of people who value and collect music media as a work of art as well as simply playing music.