Digital streaming has been on the rise in recent years and
in 2015 the popularity of streaming has doubled in popularity. According to
Nielsen Music, nearly 135.2 billion streams have been generated this year
against the 70.3 billion that were measured at this time last year.
Various types of streaming were measured, audio and video.
Audio-only listening saw an increase of 74.2 percent due to ease of access to
streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal. Video streaming also
saw a significant increase, topping that of audio only, of 109.2 percent in a
year.
This year’s top selling albums included Taylor Swift’s 1989 and Drake’s If You’re Reading This… with over 2 million units being moved including
albums and album equivalent units. Swift’s 1989
was also the top selling album of 2014 while Drake’s album has taken the lead
on digital album sales with over 850,000 units. Album equivalent units are
classified as TEA or SEA. TEA is track equivalent albums where 10 track
downloads equal one album and SEA , streaming equivalent albums, is where
1,5000 streams equal an album. TEA and SEA album equivalents saw an increase of
14.2 percent totaling in nearly 76 percent of album consumptions. Among the two
classifications of album equivalents, SEA is the most popular consisting of
90.1 million units in this year.
While digital consumption of albums has seen a significant
rise, physical album sales are on the steady decline. CD sales were on the
decline by 10 percent while vinyl sales saw upward growth of 38.4 percent.
While the increase in vinyl sales would be hopeful, vinyl sales only accounted
for 5.6 million units within the year.
After improved technology, allowing Nielsen Music, to better
track digital consumption it is clear that streaming is on the rise and album
sales will continue to decline. This will cause the industry’s approach to
intellectual property with digital tracks to be revisited.
