Buying songs on iTunes is dying

By Staff writer | 04 Mar 2019 at 08:16hrs
Technonlogy
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has released a new report detailing the sales of physical and digital media in the US.

The report found that individual song downloads on iTunes - which is the most popular platform for song sales in the United States - declined to just over $1 billion, while sales of physical media sat at $1.15 billion.

This means that US consumers spent more money on physical vinyl and CDs than they did on purchasing individual songs or albums on digital platforms.

Download sales comprised over 40% of the music industry's revenue in 2013, but these have steadily decreased as more users move towards online streaming.

"Adoption of paid subscription services continued to grow quickly in 2018," the RIAA said.

"The average number of paid subscriptions (excluding limited tier options) grew 42% compared with the prior year, exceeding 50 million for the first time ever."

An average of more than one million new subscriptions were added on a monthly basis throughout 2018.

Music streaming accounted for almost all of the revenue growth for the music industry last year, with both paid subscription services and ad-driven platforms seeing impressive growth.

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