Paid streaming subscriptions grew just 2.7% YoY in the US in H1 2024 – but overall market revenue topped $8.6bn

Two important data points for you.

Important Data Point 1: There were 131.43 million households in the US last year, according to Census data.

Important Data Point 2: According to new stats from the RIAA published today (August 29), there were 99.0 million Paid music streaming subscription accounts in H1 2024.

What we’re about to tell you, therefore, is no great surprise. But it’s still big news for the global music industry:

The United States appears to be officially nudging closer to saturation point for music subscriptions – i.e. the moment when the maximum possible amount of paying American music subscribers has been reached.

According to the RIAA’s new midyear report, the United States saw just 2.5 million net additions of Paid music subscription accounts in H1 2024 vs. the prior-year period – a rise of just 2.7% YoY in percentage terms.

That +2.5 million YoY net increase in H1 2024 compared to a +6.6 million YoY net rise in H1 2023, +7.9 million in H1 2022, +9.4 million in H1 2021, and +14.4 million in H1 2020 – a steady pattern of deceleration in the growth of subscriptions in the US market.

(These RIAA figures are for premium paid subscription accounts; they don’t include less popular ‘limited tier’ subscriptions and count multi-user subscriptions like Family plans as individual accounts.)

The US is the globe’s biggest music market. But, of course, it is not the world – and there is still plenty of growth potential for music streaming subscriptions in multiple key international markets.

Indeed, according to IFPI stats, the US market made up around 38% of the total wholesale revenues of the global recorded music industry (USD $28.6 billion) in 2023.

Still, the fact that the volume of Premium music streaming accounts in the States increased only 2.7% YoY in H1 2024 (from 96.5m in H1 2023 to 99.0m in H1 2024) is bound to attract plenty of industry attention – and discussion – in the months ahead.

In terms of Paid music subscription revenue, the US market saw growth of 5.1% YoY in H1 2024 – with $5.23 billion generated by Premium subs in the half-year period.

(The fact that Paid streaming revenue grew faster than the volume of Paid streaming subscriptions in H1 2024 implies that music subscriber ARPU improved in the market YoY.)

According to the RIAA’s new midyear report, the US recorded music market generated USD $8.65 billion overall.

The RIAA‘s headline stat shows that on a retail basis, recorded music revenues in the US – that’s money spent on both physical and digital music consumption – grew 3.9% YoY.

On a wholesale basis – i.e. only the money that made its way back to record labels, distributors etc. – the entire US recorded music industry generated $5.5 billion in H1 2024.

According to the RIAA data, that wholesale figure was up 3% YoY.

In the first half of this year, total revenues from all types of streaming services (including paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps, and others) grew 3.8% YoY to a record high $7.3 billion.

Revenues from music streaming services contributed approximately 84% of the US recorded music market’s total revenues for the fifth straight year.

The RIAA also reported that ad supported on-demand music streaming services (like YouTube, the ad-supported version of Spotify, Facebook and others) “paced slower than in recent years”.

Revenues from on-demand ad-supported music streaming services grew 2.4% YoY to $899 million. These ad-supported services contributed only 10% of total H1 2024 recorded music revenues.

Elsewhere in H1 2024, revenues from physical music formats (including vinyl LPs, CDs and other physical formats) reached $994 million in the US, up 12.7% YoY.

Revenues from vinyl records grew 17% YoY or by $107.5 million, to $740 million, and accounted for three-quarters of physical format revenues.

For the fourth consecutive year, vinyl outsold CDs in units (24 million vs 17 million). RIAA reported that revenues from CDs were “relatively flat” at $237 million in H1 2024.

“As we push to further strengthen and widen the foundation of rights these revenue streams are built on, we look forward to continued success and more opportunities for fans to engage with their favorite music.”

Matt Bass, RIAA

Commenting on the H1 results, RIAA’s VP of Research Matt Bass said: “Today’s snapshot of recorded music revenues reflects consistent growth and a hard-won sustainability in our industry as we continue hitting new record highs year after year.

“As we push to further strengthen and widen the foundation of rights these revenue streams are built on, we look forward to continued success and more opportunities for fans to engage with their favorite music.”

Music Business Worldwide