Recorded music streaming revenues grew by just 3.6% YoY in the United States in 2024 – dragged down by a decline in advertising payouts

The IFPI’s official global trade figures for recorded music in 2024 are due tomorrow (March 19), and MBW is hearing rumors of positive news – including worldwide users of paid music services tipping up somewhere above 750 million.

Before then, however, comes a number that will grab attention for less-than-sparkling reasons.

According to new data issued by the RIAA today (March 18), recorded music trade revenues from streaming in the United States – the world’s largest music market – grew by just 3.6% YoY in 2024, up to USD $14.88 billion.

Considering that US-based inflation sat at around 3% in the 12 calendar months of last year, this number is unlikely to get industry watchers hot under the collar.

Furthermore,  Spotify actually raised the price of its individual Premium subscription in the US last summer to $11.99.

The US industry’s overall streaming revenue performance in 2024 was dragged down by payouts from on-demand, ad-supported music services, including YouTube and Spotify‘s ‘freemium’ tier.

Combined, these platforms saw their revenue contribution to the recorded music industry decline in the US last year, down 1.8% YoY to $1.83 billion.

Meanwhile, on-demand ‘Paid’ subscription platforms – like Spotify Premium, YouTube Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, and Apple Music – contributed $11.685 billion to recorded music rightsholders, up 4.6% YoY.

(Outside of these obvious unlimited ‘Paid’ subscription services, the RIAA counts ‘Limited Tier’ subscription products – including Amazon Prime and Pandora Plus – separately.)

The overall US recorded music market’s revenues – including streaming, physical sales, downloads, advertising, and sync – grew by just 3.3% YoY in 2024, according to the RIAA, generating a total of $17.67 billion.

That’s a retail revenue estimate from the trade org, meaning it takes into account what consumers spent on music sales and subscriptions.

In particularly glum news for music rightsholders, the RIAA says that on a wholesale basis (i.e. the money that actually ended up with artists, labels, and distributors), the US recorded music industry grew by just 2.7% YoY in 2024.

Remember: that 2.7% growth was actually lower than inflation.

The total wholesale amount generated by artists, labels, and distributors in the year, says the RIAA, was $11.3 billion.

That was up by approximately +$300 million vs. the equivalent wholesale figure from 2023 ($11.0 billion).

In turn, that $300 million YoY wholesale revenue growth was less than half the size of the equivalent growth (+$700 million) seen in the prior year.

Amongst all this middling news, the industry experienced a landmark moment in 2024: the number of paid subscriptions to on-demand music services in the United States hit 100 million for the first time in history.

However, according to the RIAA’s new end-of-year report, the United States saw just 3.2 million net additions of Paid music subscription accounts in 2024 vs. the prior year.

As you can see from the chart below, that +3.2 million YoY net increase in 2024 compared to a +5.2 million YoY net rise in 2023, +7.6 million in 2022, +8.5 million in 2021, and +15.1 million in 2020 – a steady pattern of deceleration in the growth of subscriptions in the US market.

(These RIAA figures are for premium paid subscription accounts only; they don’t include ‘Limited Tier’ subscriptions. They count multi-user subscriptions like Family plans as individual accounts.)

It’s worthwhile looking at that 100 million subscriber stat in the context of the number of estimated households in the United States last year.

According to recent estimates, there were 133.8 million households in the US at the end of 2024.

With 100 million paid music subscriptions in the market at the same point in time, the US appears to be nudging ever-closer to saturation point for paid music subs.

The fact that Paid streaming revenue grew faster than the volume of Paid streaming subscriptions in 2024 implies that music subscriber ARPU (Average revenue per user) slightly improved in the market YoY.

Meanwhile, total physical music sales (on a retail basis) grew 5% YoY to $2 billion in 2024.

Revenues from vinyl records grew 7% YoY to $1.4 billion, which the RIAA noted was the 18th consecutive year of growth for the format. Vinyl records accounted for nearly three-quarters of total physical revenues in the US last year.

For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (44 million vs 33 million). Revenues from CDs grew 1% YoY to $541 million in 2024.

“Music has never been more dynamic, compelling, and relevant – reaching out beyond our earbuds with conversation-driving cultural touchstones like unforgettable halftime performances, historic television moments or must-see films and biopics.”

Mitch Glazier, RIAA 

“Twenty years into the streaming era, over 100 million paid subscriptions now deliver two-thirds of industry revenues, a historic milestone powering America’s music economy forward. It’s an extraordinary achievement by an industry that has successfully focused on its creative and commercial core by championing innovative new services, options, and experiences that add real value for fans,” said RIAA Chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier.

“Music has never been more dynamic, compelling, and relevant – reaching out beyond our earbuds with conversation-driving cultural touchstones like unforgettable halftime performances, historic television moments or must-see films and biopics.

“And American fans and superfans’ dedication to the artists they support promises an even brighter future as record labels work to create new opportunities that boost incomes for artists and diverse revenue streams to grow the pie for everyone with a stake in the music economy.”

Music ComeOn