Music Sales Down In Almost Every Category In 2014 [Year End Stats]

U.S. music sales were down in virtually every category in 2014 compared to 2013, according to year end stats shared by Nielson. Only vinyl was up, an impressive 54%. The culprit? Streaming music—both free and paid—jumped 54%, as more and more consumers shifted from buying music to borrowing it.

Nielsen Music's 2014 At-A-Glance:

Overall On-Demand (Audio+Video) Streams
2014 – 164 Billion
2013 – 106 Billion

+54%

“Digital music consumption continues its robust growth, with On-Demand streaming up 54% over last year and 164 billion song streams being played in 2014 ,” says David Bakula, SVP Industry Insights, Nielsen Entertainment. “Although overall music sales are showing declines, Vinyl album sales were up 52% in 2014, shattering last year’s record-setting total by more than 3 million LPs. In 2014, Vinyl album sales accounted for more than 6% of all physical albums sales.”

Vinyl Albums
2014 – 9.2 million
2013 – 6.1 million

+52%

*This is the highest year for vinyl sales since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan first began tracking music sales. Vinyl album sales have increased (year-over-year) for the past nine consecutive years.

Overall Albums
2014 - 257 million
2013 - 289.4 million

-11%

Digital Albums
2014 - 106.5 million
2013 - 117.6 million

-9%

**41 percent of all albums sold in 2014 were downloads (same in 2013)

Digital Songs
2014 – 1.1 billion
2013 – 1.26 billion

-12%