That said, digital downloads dropped 9.4 percent, although digital album sales rose by a surprising 4.2 percent (this category had been declining rapidly).
As expected, physical sales declined 17.3 percent to $748 million, with CD sales dropping by 31.5 percent to $494.8 million.
The one bright spot in physical sales continues to be vinyl sales, which grew 51.3 percent to $226 million.
The major takeaway continues to be the growth of paid subscriptions from services like Spotify, as the category was up almost 25% over the same time last year. The RIAA estimates that there was a slight growth of subscribers, up to 8.1 million in the United States.
What this shows is that physical product (except for vinyl) is falling fast, and digital revenue is just barely keeping up.
Although more and more people are signing up for streaming, not enough are convinced that it's worth it to spend 10 bucks a month on yet.
Pricing seems to be a big issue here, but until the labels and publishers come to grips with this issue, we won't see the dramatic growth in streaming subscriptions that everyone has been expecting.
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