A new report shows a surge in streaming and a decline in digital sales.
Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks music sales in the United States and Canada, has released new figures showing nearly doubled growth for music streaming in 2015 so far.
According to the company, there were 232bn streams between January and September 2015, up from 118.1bn for the same period last year. At the same time digital track sales fell 10.9% to 756.3m while album sales did marginally better with 77.3m.
Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is so far the top-selling digital album, with 951,000 sales, with Taylor Swift’s 1989 behind it with 809,000 sales. However, Swift takes the top spot when Track Equivalent Album (TEA) sales are included. Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly is in fifth position. Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ tops the digital single charts with over 5m sales.
According to Musically, the report is “likely to continue the debate around how independent labels’ market share should be measured in the US.”
Indies accounted for 13.2% of sales, including TEA, though this figure includes only indepedent labels not distributed by a major. Billboard argues that indie share is likely closer to 35%.