The RIAA has released its year-end annual revenue report, which analyzes the state of the recorded music industry in late 2020. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, trends in recent years have continued: transmission increased 13.4%, generating $ 10.1 billion a year compared to $ 8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 83% of the industry’s total revenue. Vinyl sales have also continued to rise, rising 29.2% to $ 619.6 million, compared to $ 479.5 million in 2019.
The increase in vinyl sales offset the continued decline in CD sales, which resulted in a marginal 0.5% decrease in revenue from all physical media from 2019 to 2020. Music downloads also continue to trend down 18% from $ 674.4 million last year, compared to $ 822.8 million in 2019. The RIAA report concludes that the transmission has driven the industry to grow for the fifth year in a row , with revenues of 9.2% in 2020, which have generated $ 12.2 billion in total. Read the full report here.
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