{"id":342841,"date":"2026-03-16T23:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/342841\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T23:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T23:40:07","slug":"how-the-music-industry-earned-a-record-11-5-billion-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/342841\/","title":{"rendered":"How the music industry earned a record $11.5 billion last year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The recording industry reached a milestone of $11.5 billion in U.S. sales last year, propelled by the continued surge in vinyl records <\/a>and the enduring appeal of Taylor Swift. <\/p>\n

Vinyl record sales accounted for more than $1 billion in U.S. sales in 2025, up more than 9%, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America\u2019s annual report.<\/p>\n

The U.S. generates nearly 50% of the format\u2019s global total, making it the leader among other physical music formats. This is also the first time vinyl records have reached over $1 billion in revenue since 1983. <\/p>\n

\u201cFans are consuming music from the artists they love in more ways than ever, and that passion is reflected in today\u2019s report. 2025 reveals a strong and stable music economy resulting from committed label investment and identification of new spaces to expand artists\u2019 creativity,\u201d Matt Bass, RIAA\u2019s vice president of research, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Though vinyl records continue to make a strong comeback, streaming made up more than 80% of total U.S. revenue. The number of subscribers to audio streamers such as Spotify<\/a> or Apple Music rose, with paid streaming accounts generating about $6.4 billion in revenue.<\/p>\n

Streaming revenue makes up more than 55% of total U.S. music sales. The U.S. is the largest paid subscription market.<\/p>\n

Driving much of the streaming revenue growth was reigning pop star Taylor Swift, who earned the biggest album opening of all time<\/a> in 2025 with her 12th album, \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl.\u201d This record was previously held by Adele\u2019s \u201c25,\u201d which moved nearly 3.5 million units in its first week.<\/p>\n

Swift sold more than 4 million copies in the U.S. within its opening week. \u201cShowgirl\u2019s\u201d 12 songs raked in 681 million streams, according to Billboard, making it the fourth-biggest streaming week of all time, behind Swift\u2019s \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department<\/a>\u201d and Drake\u2019s \u201cScorpion\u201d and \u201cCertified Lover Boy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMusic remains a cornerstone of culture and a growing economic powerhouse for the U.S., contributing $212 billion to our GDP and supporting more than 2.5 million American jobs,\u201d RIAA Chairman Mitch Glazier said in a statement.<\/p>\n

L.A. Times staff writer Mikael Wood contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recording industry reached a milestone of $11.5 billion in U.S. sales last year, propelled by the continued…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[68558,3257,146,45683,85,46,20882,409,2075,13256,25448,9028,167615,2070,167614,4374,167613,167612],"class_list":["post-342841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-annual-report","tag-artist","tag-entertainment","tag-first-time","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-last-year","tag-music","tag-recording-industry","tag-showgirl","tag-statement","tag-streaming","tag-streaming-revenue","tag-taylor-swift","tag-total-u-s-revenue","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-sale","tag-vinyl-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}