5

84-billion streams measured in BuzzAngle Q1 report

buzzangle q1 2017 638w


BuzzAngle unceremoniously released its first-quarter 2017 music industry consumption numbers today — and only the numbers, without comment or executive summary. No problem there, as the numbers tell a clear story.

Compared to Q1 2016, streaming jumped 61% to 84-billion streams. That’s the biggest number in the report … well, except for a 64% leap in cassette sales (yes, swallow your coffee, it’s cassettes). 11,000 music cassettes were sold, perhaps tagging along with the vinyl resurgence, which posted a 23% gain. (The comparison is problematic, as cassette tape doesn’t have any of the purported advantages of vinyl.)

Music consumption as a whole, which BuzzAngle frames with a proprietary metric called “Projects,” encompassing sales and streaming, grew 7%. (It’s worth noting that on the revenue side of the industry, as reported by the RIAA, 2016 earnings jumped 14% in 2016.)

Not unexpectedly, digital and physical sale units dropped according to BuzzAngle: minus 25% for digital and minus 9% for physical. Combined album sales were down 17%.

 

Brad Hill

5 Comments

  1. Are you serious ?. 84-billion streams measured in BuzzAngle Q1 report. How can we trust this report ??. It’s blown away my mind anyway. Tweakbox app needs that level of popularity though :p. Thanks

  2. So yes, it really is all about streaming now, as audio stream consumption continued its explosive expansion based on every possible metric. Subscription streams now represent 80% of total audio streams, up from 76% in 2016, according to BuzzAngle.

  3. So yes, it really is all about streaming now, as audio stream consumption continued its explosive expansion based on every possible metric. Subscription streams now represent 80% of total audio streams, up from 76% in 2016, according to Buzz Angle.

Comments are closed.