The Rise of Music Streaming Continues

Americans consume more music than ever. That’s according to Nielsen’s 2016 U.S. Music report, published last week. Fueled by a further increase in music streaming, overall album consumption (measured in album sales and equivalent digital song downloads and streams) increased by 3.1 percent compared to the previous year.

While CD and digital album sales decreased by 16 and 20 percent, respectively, the number of on-demand music streams increased to 432 billion, up nearly 40 percent since 2015. While nearly 80 percent of music consumption now happens digitally, the most analog of formats continues its surprising comeback. LP sales were up 10 percent in 2016 as vinyl lovers bought 13.1 million albums.