Music streaming services have already generated a new high of half a trillion (507.7 billion) of on-demand streams in the first half of 2019, according to Nielsen’s Mid-Year Music Report released this week. This record number, an increase of 31.6% in the first half of last year, was attributed to the success of the singles and albums of Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Halsey, Khalid, BTS, Lil Nas X and Bad Bunny, among others. factors. .
For example, the report also highlighted the enormous impact of TikTok and its global audience of 500 million monthly users.
“No pop-up app helped break more songs in 2019 than TikTok,” Nielsen said.
He then pointed to several TikTok hits, such as the most-consumed on-demand song of 2019, Nil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” which recorded 1.3 billion year-to-date on-demand streams; as well as Ava Max’s “Sweet But Psycho,” which hooked 310 million streams on demand (YTD); and Joji’s “Slow Dancing in the Dark” with its 165 million streams on demand (YTD).
Additionally, the report broke the record of 507.7 billion streams on demand on both audio-on-demand streams, such as those found on Spotify and Apple Music, and on video-on-demand streams, they found that it was the latter that grew faster.
According to Nielsen data, video streaming grew 39.6% from 124.7 billion in the first half of 2018 to 174.2 billion in the first half of 2019.
Meanwhile, audio streams only grew 27.8% in comparison, going from 261.0 billion in the first half of last year to 333.5 billion in the first half of 2019.
Additional analysis by Music Business Worldwide found that despite record streaming numbers, annual growth in audio streaming is actually slowing. This year’s 27.8% growth in audio streaming from H1 2018 to H1 2019 was a reduction from the 41.5% growth seen from H1 2017 to H1 2018. Or, more simply, the annual growth in total audio streaming in the US it was over 4 billion transmissions between the two reports.
Also the downward trends are physical album sales (-15.1% to 32.5M); Sale of digital albums (-24.4% to 19.1M); vinyl (-9.6% to 7.7M); and sales of digital tracks (-25.6% to 153.1M).
The report also mentioned some notable moments in music thus far in 2019. A key finding, in terms of its relationship with tech companies, was the Marshmello concert held at Fortnite. Nielsen found that the event resulted in “significant gains” in the artist catalog, with 13,000 equivalent units earned during the first week of “Marshmello: Fornite Extended Set,” the DJ / producer’s largest sales week to date. His album “Joytime II” in the week following its appearance on Fortnite also saw a 316% increase in sales.
The full report, which dives into individual artists and trends, is available here.
The data was calculated from January 4, 2019 to June 20, 2019.
Image credit, top: Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X perform onstage at the 2019 BET Awards on June 23, 291 in Los Angeles, CA. Photo by Kevin Winter / Getty Images
