• by Wayne Friedman , September 20, 2023

Boosted by continued strong growth of streaming services, total U.S. recording music revenues grew 9.3% to $8.4 billion in the first half of 2023, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

“In the first half of 2023, recorded music revenues continued to set new milestones and reflect the results of more than a decade of industry transformation,” said the RIAA.

This is largely coming from streaming services, which dominate the business with a 84% share. These improved at a slightly faster rate -- up 10.3% to $7 billion. 

Paid streaming subscriptions, which account for 78% of all streaming revenues, were 11% higher to $5.5 billion. On-demand ad-supported streaming was virtually flat -- up 0.6% to $870.1 million.

The RIAA says that over the last five years, people with music subscriptions more than doubled -- now 95.8 million for the first six months of 2019, up from 58.2 million over the same period in 2019.

Physical music revenues remain a much smaller share of overall recording music revenues, at 11%. From LP/EP vinyl, CDs, and other formats, this grew 5% to $882 million.