While paid music downloads continued their freefall in 2014, streaming music numbers continued to grow, and even “ancient” vinyl record sales saw a resurgence.
According to Nielsen SoundScan (via The Wall Street Journal), streaming music grew a remarkable 54 percent in 2014, moving from 106 billion songs in 2013 to 164 billion in 2014.
Meanwhile, paid downloads of full albums dropped 9% for 2014, while individual song downloads suffered even more, dropping 12% for the same period. Overall, according to SoundScan, Americans bought 257 million albums in 2014, 106.5 million of which they downloaded digitally.
Vinyl record sales enjoyed a resurgence in 2014, with 9.2 million vinyl record sold, a 52% increase over 2013, and the highest sales levels recorded since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991.
Due to the drop in music downloads, companies like Apple have been searching for ways to improve their position in the overall music market. Results from Apple’s Pandora-like iTunes Radio effort has proven less than spectacular, leading the company to acquire subscription music streaming service Beats Music in 2014.
Apple is reportedly looking at a major revamp of the Beats Music service this year, possibly integrating the service into iOS and iTunes, likely rebranding the effort under the iTunes badge.
