Digital music sales fell for the first time ever in 2013. This marks the first yearly decrease in U.S. digital sales since the iTunes store opened in April of 2003.
Overall for the full year 2013, digital track sales fell 5.7% from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion units while digital album sales fell 0.1% to 117.6 million units from the previous year’s total of 117.7 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Music industry executives first discounted the availability of music streaming services as a cause for the drop in sales, by the second half of the year, many were admitting that both advertising-supported and paid subscription services were contributing to the drop.
Although official numbers haven’t been released, industry executives have noted the the growth in streaming revenue has been offsetting the decline in digital music sales revenue.
Album sales saw a 8.4% decline, slipping to 289.4 million units from nearly 316 million units in 2012. CD sales dropped 14.5%, while vinyl album sales increased to 6 million units, up from 4.55 million units in 2012. Vinyl now accounts for 2% of U.S. album sales, digital albums took 40.6% of sales, the CD format accounted for 57.2%, with DVDs taking a mere 0.2% of the market.
Although there was an overall decline in digital album sales, digital download stores like iTunes gained market share, with a 40.6% share of U.S. album sales.
