There Are 50.2M Paid Music Subscriptions

The American music industry earned $5.4 billion in revenue from 50.2 million paid music subscriptions in 2018. That figure reflects stunning growth for the industry as a whole.

Three years earlier, there were just under 11 million paid music subscriptions.

Streaming revenue, driven by the growth of paid subscriptions, now accounts for 75 percent of all U.S. music industry revenue.

Physical CDs and vinyls now make up just 12 percent of the total.

The surge in subscriptions helped the industry to its third consecutive year of double-digit growth. Overall, Americans spent $9.8 billion on recorded music last year. That’s up a billion dollars from the year before and the highest level in 10 years.

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.