It’s the first time since 2011 that physical music outsold digital downloads in the U.S.
According to a new report of the Recording Industry Association of America, RIAA, in 2017 physical sales beat the digital download market taking 17% of the market, while downloads took only the 15%, although streaming industry is still on top, taking up 65% netting a total of 5.7 billion in sales.
Revenues of physical products decreased just 4% to $1.5 billion, while digital downloads fell 25% to $1.3 billion.
RIAA reported: “This is the first time since 1999 that U.S. music revenues grew materially for two years in a row. At $8.7 billion, the industry has taken a decade to return to the same overall revenue level as 2008, and is still 40% below peak levels as the growth from streaming has been offset by continued declines in revenues from both physical and digital unit based sales“.
Check out the full report here!
