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Music Industry Reports Record $15.9 billion 2022 Revenue Driven by Paid Streaming, Vinyl Records
March 9, 2023
The music industry March 9 announced it generated an all-time high $15.9 billion in estimated retail revenue in 2022, driven by paid streaming service subscriptions and vinyl records, according to new data from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Similar to the retail movie market, music sales were largely driven by 92 million paid streaming subscriptions, while the steady resurgence of vinyl records underscored ongoing consumer appetites for packaged media.
Revenue from physical formats increased up 4% to $1.7 billion, from $1.63 billion in 2021. For the first time since 1987, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (41 million vs. 33 million) and accounted for 71% of physical format revenues, growing 17% to $1.2 billion, from $1 billion, in the 16th consecutive year of growth.
Collectively accounting for 84% ($13.3 billion) of total revenue, streaming continued to be the largest driver with paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others.
“[Last year] was an impressive year of sustained ‘growth-over-growth’ more than a decade after streaming’s explosion onto the music scene,” Mitch Glazier, chairman/CEO of RIAA, said in a statement. “Subscription streaming revenue now make up two thirds of the market. This long and ongoing arc of success has only been possible thanks to the determined and creative work of record companies fighting to build a healthy streaming economy where artists and rightsholders get paid wherever and whenever their work is used.”
