Nielsen/BuzzAngle Music Midyear Reports: Overall Music Consumption Up Almost 10%

Drake: Dominates Midyear Figures (Twocoms/Shutterstock)

The music business continues to make strides through the first half of 2017, according to the latest figures from NIELSEN MUSIC and BUZZANGLE MUSIC, with the former reporting overall consumption up 8,1%, and the latter reporting it up 9.9%.

“The first half of 2017 has seen some incredible new benchmarks for the music industry," NIELSEN/SVP Music Industry Insights DAVID BAKULA said. "The rapid adoption of streaming platforms by consumers has generated engagement with music on a scale that we’ve never seen before.”

Both NIELSEN and BUZZANGLE confirm that streaming is still on the rise, with weekly on-demand audio streams surpassing seven billion for the first time ever, during the week ending MARCH 9th, according to NIELSEN. BUZZANGLE reported audio streams reached 179.8 billion, up 58.5% over 2016 YTD, while NIELSEN reported 184 billion streams so far, a 62.4% increase over the same period last year.

NIELSEN reports overall on-demand streams (including video) have surpassed 284 billion streams this year, an increase of 36.4% over the same period in 2016. NIELSEN also reported a decrease in album sales (-18.3%), album sales + TEA (-19.9%), digital album sales (-19.9%) and physical album sales (-17%), Total audio consumption (albums + TEA + Audio on-demand SEA) is up 8.9% over last year.

BUZZANGLE reported declines in overall album sales (-13.9%), digital album sales (--24.3%) and physical album sales (-2.1%). Digital album sales accounted for 46.6% of all album sales so far this year, down from 53% last year, while physical album sales accounted for 53.4% of all album sales in 2017, up from 46.9% over 2016 YTD.

According to NIELSEN, the top streaming on-demand song (audio and video combined) is ED SHEERAN’s “Shape of You,” followed by MIGOS’ (feat. LIL UZI VERT) “Bad and Boujee” and LUIS FONAI & DADDY YANKEE’s (feat. JUSTIN BIEBER) “Despacito.”

BUZZANGLE reported the artist with the most streams during the first six months of the year was DRAKE with 3.7 billion streams and the song with the most streams for the first half of 2017 was MIGOS' "Bad and Boujee" with 711.3 million streams. NIELSEN's biggest song at the mid-year point, in terms of total song consumption (digital song sales with streaming equivalent on-demand audio) is ED SHEERAN's “Shape of You” with 4.53 million units. The track also tops the Digital Song Sale charts with over two million downloads sold so far this year. 

Other NIELSEN findings include KENDRICK LAMAR’s "DAMN" as the leading album in total volume this year with total activity of more than 1.77 million units (albums, track equivalent albums and audio on-demand streaming equivalent albums combined), followed by ED SHEERAN’s "÷ (Divide)," with 1.74 million units and DRAKE’s "More Life" with 1.69 million units. The release of "More Life" on MARCH 18th set a record for audio on-demand streams in one week, with its tracks earning a combined 385 million streams, beating the record held by his previous album, "Views," which logged 245 million streams in its first week for its songs. On the other hand, BUZZANGLE had DRAKE's "More Life" as the most streamed album of the year with 1.8 billion. 

More NIELSEN data: this year's SUPER BOWL halftime performance by LADY GAGA resulted in a massive 1,580% lift in digital track sales over the previous week, as well as increases of 844% in albums with TEA and SEA (Streaming Equivalent Albums) and 210% for overall on-demand audio streams. Sales of her album "Joanne" grew 814% with TEA and SEA in the week following the Super Bowl, compared to the prior week. 

According to NIELSEN, the GRAMMY AWARDS also proved to be a catalyst for engagement, with many of the artists who performed seeing considerable lifts in sales and streaming during the week following the awards. The songs performed at the awards ceremony added 319,000 song sales and nearly 21 million on-demand streams. CHANCE THE RAPPER’s "Coloring Book" led all album on-demand streams with a unit increase of over 15 million; ADELE’s "25" was a distant second with a unit increase of over 5 million on-demand streams. PRINCE was the single-most streamed artist, with an increase of over 16 million on-demand streams (5500% increase). CHANCE THE RAPPER followed close behind, with an increase of just under 16 million on-demand streams (84% increase).

Other BUZZANGLE factoids:

• Song Consumption for 2017 YTD was up 29.5% over 2016 YTD (1.5 billion song project units in 2017 YTD vs. 1.2 billion song project units in 2016 YTD).  

• Subscription streams grew 69.3% and accounted for 78.6% of total audio streams in 2017 YTD, up from 73.6% in 2016 YTD.

• Vinyl album sales were up 20.4% over 2016 YTD while CD album sales were down 3.9%. Vinyl albums accounted for 4.9% of all physical album sales, up from 3.5% in 2016 YTD.

• Song sales (downloads) in 2017 YTD were down 23.8% compared to 2016 YTD (313.3 million in 2017 YTD vs. 410.9 million in 2016 YTD).

• In 2016, total on-demand streams never broke 10 billion for one week. During the first half of 2017, the average number of total on-demand streams per week is 10.8 billion with the highest streaming week being the week of 4/21/17 with 11.8 billion streams. 

• Total album sales (combining CD & vinyl) on RECORD STORE DAY 2017 (4/22) at Independent Music Stores were up 6% compared to RECORD STORE DAY  2016 (4/16/16).

• Vinyl album sales on RECORD STORE DAY at Independent Music Stores were up 14% compared to 2016 (4/16/16).

•  The biggest week for vinyl album sales in 2017 so far was the week of APRIL 21st, the same week as RECORD STORE DAY with more than 224,000 vinyl albums sold.

• The biggest selling cassette album in 2017 so far is "Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 2," with 3,934 sales. The Top 3 selling cassette albums for the first six months are all "Guardians Of The Galaxy album mixes."

For the full NIELSEN MUSIC report, go here. For the full BUZZANGLE MUSIC findings, go here.

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