Music Streaming's Unstoppable Rise

The CD, MP3 and radio are all being eclipsed by a revolution in music streaming. More Americans than ever are signing up for subscription services like Spotify and Apple Music. That wasn't always the case, however. As recently as two years ago, digital downloads were the driving force behind the music industry while the U.S. had a grand total of 9.1 million paid music subscriptions.

According to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America, that increased threefold, topping 30.4 million in the first six months of this year. That has yielded dividends for the music industry with retail revenues up 17 percent on last year to $4 billion. Mid-year revenue has also increase at wholesale value, rising 14.6 percent to $2.7 billion. Streaming has accounted to a massive chunk of the music industry's success so far in 2017, bringing in 62 percent of total revenue.