Revenue From Paid Music Subs Rises 8 Percent

US recorded music industry revenues inched up last year to $15.9 billion from $15 billion in 2021, according to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Virtually all of that increase owed to a rise in revenues from streaming music, which grew from $12.4 billion to $13.3 billion.

Within that total, revenue from paid subscription services increased by 8% year-over-year to reach $10.2 billion, the first time surpassing the $10 billion mark. In so doing, paid subscriptions accounted for 77% of streaming music revenues, and almost two-thirds of all recorded industry revenues.

Paid music streaming services in 2022 gained another 8 million subscriptions over the previous year to reach 92 million, a year-over-year increase of 9.5%. The number of subscriptions has almost doubled in the past 5 years, from 46.9 million in 2018, although growth has slowed somewhat over the past couple of years. Nonetheless, adults ages 16-64 around the world are spending an increasing amount of time streaming music as opposed to listening to broadcast radio, per recent research.

Within the streaming category, revenue growth was faster for limited tier subscriptions (defined as “services limited by factors such as mobile access, catalog availability, product features, or device restrictions), which grew by 18% to $1.1 billion. Revenues from ad-supported on-demand services climbed at a slower pace of 6%, to $1.8 billion. These services accounted for 11% of total recorded music industry revenues for the year.

Streaming Contributes 84% of Recorded Music Revenues

Last year, streaming accounted for a full 84% of all US recorded music revenues, which was up slightly from 83% in 2021. Physical (11%), digital downloads (3%) and synchronization royalties (2%) contributed the remaining share of recorded music revenues, with digital downloads’ revenue share falling by a point. Indeed, revenues from digital downloads fell by 20% to just $495 million. A decade earlier, in 2012, digital downloads accounted for a peak of 43% of music industry revenues.