The Radio industry Association of America (RIAA), the 74 year-old trade association of the record industry, has released its 2025 year-end revenue report. Welcomed though it is in our office, we still miss the previous format which compared annual revenue of all types of audio over decades.
Putting aside that grumble, we appreciate the concise review of total revenue and its components. And we do get a previous-year comparison.
The Key Numbers
Three headline metrics deliver the main punch:
- Total 2025 revenue: $11.5 billion. It’s a new high, presented as an uninformative line graphic. A second page delivers more info. (See below.)
- Paid subscriptions add the most value for fans, representing more than half of recorded music total revenue. The dollar amount there is $6.4 billion shelled out by consumers for music subscriptions — a year-over-year jump of 6.8%.
- Vinyl continues to grow, reaching one billion dollars in annual revenue — that number represents 19 years of vinyl growth. Nearly 50% of vinyl revenue is in the U.S.
The report contains two bottom lines:
- Total Streaming Revenue ($9.4 billion)
- Total Download Revenue ($273 million)
Combined, those two categories add up to Total Digital Revenue, where we see these anchoring numbers:
Total Digital Revenue $9.7 billion (+.3.0%). The report is freely available as a two-page PDF, HERE.
