Have you listened to music today? If you have you probably streamed it. In 2017, total U.S. music industry revenue was $8.7 billion, 65% of which came from streaming music services. Revenues from streaming services increased 217% from 2014 to 2017. The number of subscribers to paid streaming music services increased 358% during this time period, topping out at 35.3 million in 2017. Despite revenue and number of subscribers increasing, streaming music services are losing between $27 million and $426 million per year. How are musicians faring? On average, the top streaming services pay between $0.019 and $0.0007 per play in 2018. As a result, musicians need their songs streamed between 77,500 and 2.1 million times per month, depending on platform, in order to make a minimum wage.1
Today’s market size shows the amount of revenue earned in 2014 and 2017 from streaming music services in the United States. As of March 2018, the top streaming services in terms of the number of users worldwide were YouTube (1 billion users), Spotify (159 million), Pandora (81 million), Apple Music (36 million) and Amazon (20 million).
1 Minimum wage according to the source is $1,472 per month.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2014 and 2017
Market size: $1.8 billion and $5.7 billion respectively
Sources: Joshua P. Friedlander, “News and Notes on 2017 RIAA Revenue Statistics,” The Recording Industry Association of America, March 22, 2018 available online here; “Money Too Tight to Mention?” Information is Beautiful, March 3, 2018 available online here; Chris Cooke, “US Record Industry Revenues Up to $8.72 Billion Thanks to All Your (Mainly Premium) Streams,” CMU, March 23, 2018 available online here.
Image source: FirmBee, “mobile-phone-iphone-music-616012,” Pixabay, January 30, 2015 available online here.