A quick look on RIAA’s 2015 year-end music sales and shipments report reveals that streaming is now the largest revenue-generator for the U.S. recorded music industry. The music business business that continues to undergo considerable changes in consumer behavior and business models.

The music industry is now a digital business, deriving more than 70% of its revenues from a wide array of digital platforms and formats. The share of revenues from those digital formats surpasses that of any other creative industry.

In addition, In 2015, digital music subscription services reached new all-time highs, generating more than $1 billion in revenues for the first time, and averaging nearly 11 million paid subscriptions for the year. Heading into 2016, the number of subscriptions swelled even higher - more than 13 million by the end of December - holding great promise for this year.

According to RIAA's report for 2015, the U.S. recorded music industry continued its transition to more digital and more diverse revenue streams in 2015. Overall revenues in 2015 were up 0. 9% to $7.0 billion at estimated retail value. The continued growth of revenues from streaming services offset declines in sales of digital downloads and physical product.

2015 was a milestone year for streaming music. For the first time, streaming was the largest component of industry revenues, comprising 34.3 % of the market, just slightly higher than digital downloads.

According to RIAA, the streaming category includes revenues from subscription services (such as paid versions of Spotify, TIDAL, and Apple Music, among others), streaming radio service revenues that are distributed by SoundExchange (like Pandora, SiriusXM, and other Internet radio), and other non-subscription on -demand streaming services (such as YouTube, Vevo, and ad-supported Spotify).

All parts of the streaming music market grew in 2015, and total streaming revenues exceeded $2 billion for the first time ever.
Combining all categories of streaming music (subscription, ad-supported on-demand, and SoundExchange distributions), revenues grew 29% to $2.4 billion.

Paid subscription services were the biggest– and fastest growing - portion of the streaming market. The launch of new services like TIDAL and Apple Music made this one of the most watched and talked about spaces in the industry. In 2015, revenues from paid subscription grew 52% to $1.2 billion. At the same time, the number of paid subscriptions grew 40% to an average of 10.8 million for the full year.

Total value of shipments in physical formats was $2.0 billion, down 10% versus the prior year. Vinyl LPs were up 32% by value, and at $416 million were at their highest level since 1988.

Synchronization royalties were $203 million, up 7% versus the prior year.

Overall, the data for 2015 shows a music industry that continues to adopt digital distribution platforms for the majority of its revenues. While overall revenue levels were only up slightly, large shifts continued to occur under the surface as streaming continued to increase its market share. In 2015, the industry had the most balanced revenue mix in recent history, with just about 1/3 of revenues coming from each of the major platform categories: streaming, permanent downloads, and physical sales.