Digital Music Sales Have Reached an AllTime High of 451 Billion
Sales of digital music formats hit 4.51 billion in 2014  a record level, says Wednesday's report from the Recording Industry Association of America RIAA. Streaming services gained ground in particular, notching up 1.87 billion overall in 2014  an increase in value of one-third from 2013  and overtaking CDs for the first time. Rhapsody, Spotify, Pandora and SiriusXM were the leaders in the streaming segment. Paid subscriptions earned a total of 7.7 million in 2014. Overall, RIAA reported a retail revenue value of 6.97 billion last year. The figure is slightly down from the previous year and points to a flat revenue picture for the industry, which has long worried about revenue decline from digital music piracy and the obsolescence of physical formats like CDs. Together, downloads and audio-streaming services now account for 64 of the total market by value. Permanent downloads remain the largest source of revenue at 37.