Mar 18, 2025 - Business

U.S. recorded music revenue reaches an all-time high

Nate Rau

Taylor Swift. Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Tas Rights Management

Recorded music surged to $17.7 billion in revenue last year, fueled by a boom in listeners subscribing to on-demand streaming services.

Why it matters: Streaming accounted for 84% of U.S. recorded music revenue, or $14.9 billion, according to the annual year-end revenue report released Tuesday by the Recording Industry Association of America.

State of play: The music industry, which two decades ago was reluctant to embrace streaming at the expense of CD sales, for the first time ever eclipsed 100 million paid subscribers to on-demand streaming services.

That figure is up from 75.5 million in 2020.

Yes, but: Physical sales are growing too, thanks to vinyl record fans, reaching $2 billion last year.

Vinyl sales accounted for $1.4 billion, a 7% increase over the year before.

Read the full report.

Add Axios on Google

U.S. recorded music revenue reaches an all-time high

More Nashville stories