RIAA Released Mid Year Revenue Report Claiming Streaming is Up 75% While CD Sales Plummet

As 2018 begins to wind down, the future of compact discs seems to be following. Streaming, on the other hand, is only showing signs of growth. However, while this may seem like a good thing for the music industry as a whole, streaming services are still trying to figure how to make a profit and keep artists happy.

According to an article from the PRP, the news comes from a mid-year report from the Recording Industry Association of America. The findings from the RIAA showed that streaming now makes up 75 percent of music sales revenue, while physical media has fallen to 10 percent.

The report also shows that the music industry has managed to increase revenue to 4.5 billion in 2018. This was welcomed news after the industry brought in 3.5 billion for the first half of 2016. It also shows an increase from the mid-year earnings of 4.2 billion in 2017.

While the increase in revenue is a relief for the music industry, the change from physical music to streaming is still controversial among artists. Compared to profits made off CDs, the royalties streaming services offer artists is much smaller per song.

Unfortunately for musicians, streaming seems to grow as companies are dropping out of the CD business. In an article from Forbes, Best Buy announced earlier this year that they were planning on shutting down its CD division. At one time the store was the largest seller of the compact discs in the country.

Even stores, such as Target, have begun to restructure how they stock and sell CDs as the market begins to crumble.

Despite the impending doom of CDs, hope does not seem to be lost for all physical media.

While the shine of CD’s fade the further we get from the ‘90s, vinyl records are making a comeback. An article from Rolling Stone shows that CD’s are dying three times as fast as vinyl records are growing. While CDs dropped a total of 41.5 percent in the first half of 2018, vinyl records have grown 12.6 percent.

However, despite some life from classic records, streaming is still the king. With streaming services, such as Spotify only growing in popularity, the market seems to be heading toward a digital future