The streaming revolution is still going strong in the US music industry. Figures released by Nielsen Music reveal that music streaming has doubled over the past year, up from 164.5 bn song streams to 317.2 bn.
The streaming figures mean that the US music industry could post growth figures of 15.2%, with combined sales for streaming and physical producers rising from 476.9m album consumption units in 2014 to to 549.4m in 2015.
However, as streaming rose, digital track sales fell by 12.5%, down to 964.8m units.
As in the UK, the US biggest track of the year was Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk featuring Bruno Mars, which recorded combined sales of 5.53m units. Adele’s 25 owned the album chart, with a staggering 7.44m units sold, despite the fact it was only released in November 2015. Taylor Swift’s 1989 was in second place, but far behind with 1.99m units (most of Swift’s overall sales of 5.65m came in 2014, when her record was released).
These figures mean that Adele accounted for a staggering 3% of album sales in the US on her own last year. This was particularly impressive as 5m were physical CD sales, with just 2.3m digital sales. Her album has not been made available on streaming services.
However, despite Adele’s one-woman sales drive, physical sales continued to fall overall in 2015. They were down 8.3%, from 150m to 137.5m.
