Bright Spots In 2013 U.S. Music Report Include Music Streams and Electronic Music Sales
The Nielsen & Billboard's 2013 U.S. Music Report is out and though overall music sales were down almost across the board in 2013, music streams increased by 32%. In addition, vinyl album sales were up 33% while digital electronic music track sales were up 8.4%. That covers most of the bright spots though, for the artists identified as top streamers and sellers, the year was quite bright overall.
Nielsen has made the Nielsen and Billboard's 2013 U.S. Music Report available online as a .pdf. There's quite a lot to consider and way more than one post can do justice to.
The report covers December 31, 2012 through December 29, 2013. Percentages up or down are in comparison to 2012.
Key Points:
Overall Music Streams: Up 32% at 118.1 Billion.
This includes both audio and video data from "AOL, CRICKET, MEDIANET, RDIO, RHAPSODY, SLACKER, SPOTIFY, YOUTUBE/VEVO, ZUNE."
Overall Music Sales: Down -6.3% at 1,556 Million Units
Total Album Sales: Down -8% at 289.4 Million Units.
Note that LP/Vinyl Album Sales were Up +33% at 6.1 Million Units.
Digital album sales were flat but when you break it down to Current and Catalog Albums, Current Digital Albums were Up +3.5% at 62.3 Million Units.
Digital Track Sales: Down -6% at 1,259 Million Units (first recorded drop).
Breaking Digital Track Sales down by genre, Dance/Electronic was the only genre that went Up at +8.4% though with a much lower number of Units Sold than for Pop, Rock, R&B/Hip-Hop or Country.
Additional Notes:
"Streaming continues to be a very bright spot for the music industry, with more than 32% growth over last year, including a remarkable +103% increase in On-Demand Audio streaming."
"Country music continues to be a strong seller across all formats, with Country’s share of total album sales reaching 13.8% this year (down slightly from last year’s record high of 14.1%). Country’s share of digital song sales has reached 12.6% of all songs sold and 9.6% of all digital albums sold, each of which are high water marks for the genre."
"Justin Timberlake had the biggest album – debut week this year, when the 20/20 Experience opened with 968,000 units in its first week. 20/20 Experience is the best – selling album of the year and, coupled with the subsequent fall release of the 20/20 Experience Complete, the two titles combined to sell over 3.2 Million units in 2013."
"Adele’s 21 album becomes the first album ever to surpass 3 Million in Digital sales, and the top – selling digital album of all time"
In addition to more detailed sales info, the report includes numerous charts regarding the most sold/played/streamed albums and tracks of the year.
More:
UK Music Market Growth Flat For 2013 But Only With Addition Of Streaming Subscriptions
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Flux Research/Twitter) is currently relaunching All World Dance. To suggest topics on music tech, DIY biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
