Worst Year For Music Sales Since 1991

Music
08 Jul 16

It's the worst year (so far) for music sales since the 1991 debut of SoundScan (now Nielsen Music). Album sales are down 16.9% in the first half of this year. Album units sold overall fell 13.6%, with 100.3 million total sales. CD sales fell 11.6% to 50 million sales, while vinyl sales rose 11.4% to 6.2 million sales. New album releases were hit hardest by the continued slump, falling 20.2%, to 44.1 million.

Listeners streamed 208.9 billion songs (which translates to 139.2 million album units) between January and July 6, an increase of 58.7%.

Of that 208.9 billion, 113.6 billion were audio-only, versus 95.3 billion video streams (defined as a music video view on YouTube, Vevo, Tidal and Apple Music – of which the latter two contribute a very small piece). It's the first time audio has surpassed lower-paying video streams.