US music industry grew 13.5% in first half of 2021 according to the MRC Data Midyear Report US 2021 published in collaboration with Billboard magazine. This was led by a 15% i increase in on-demand audio streaming during the time period, while vinyl continued its hot streak of 15 consecutive years in year-over-year sales growth with a 108.2% increase in total vinyl sales.
For the first time at the midyear point in MRC Data’s history (since 1991), vinyl album sales in the US outpaced CD album sales — with vinyl album volume at 19.2 million versus CD album volume at 18.9 million.
Globally, streaming’s growth continued to heat up in territories like Japan, Poland and Turkey, which posted the highest growth in audio streaming year-over-year during the first two quarters. This was reflected in hits by Nathan Evans, NCT Dream amongst others. The UK posted the fourth highest growth in streaming during the first half of 2021.
Consumers are relying on musical optimism to get them through the aftermath of a stressful year, with 55% of music-listening survey respondents in an April study citing ‘Uplifting/happy music’ as the number one most important thing the music industry can offer during the COVID-19 outbreak. This was reflected in the year’s most consumed songs, including Dua Lipa’s ‘Levitating’ (No. 2), The Weeknd’s ‘Save Your Tears’ (No. 3) and SZA’s ‘Good Days’ (No. 8).
This optimism is expected to translate to live experiences with 59% of survey respondents of the COVID-19 Entertainment Tracker study saying they miss socializing and meeting people at live events. The same survey revealed that 38% of live event goers said they’d be willing to attend a live event one month or less after a treatment/vaccine is available to the public. The report suggests that this is why music has remained a steady part of consumers’ weekly media diet, with growth in consumers who say they spend more time with music (37%) on par with short-form videos (43%) and social media (38%) among those who engage with each activity.
The 38pp MRC Data Midyear Report US 2021 can be downloaded here for free but you will have to sign up to their marketing emails.
