Music sales: downloads are out and cassettes are in

The digital download is dead. This year’s Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) mid-year report showed downloads make up just two per cent of all US music sales, falling for the fourteenth year in a row. As a consumer, there’s little reason to buy files. Streaming is far more convenient and expansive, and physical media serve listeners who want to own something (physical sales are up 13 per cent year-on-year). Streaming remains the dominant way people pay for music, making up 84 per cent of recorded revenues. While there’s little sign of the much-murmured CD revival (sales remain flat), one genre of physical format is booming. Sales of what is defined by the RIAA as “other physical” media – which includes cassettes, vinyl singles and CD singles – increased by 175 per cent. These formats appeal to superfans who want to collect, collect, collect, and have a nostalgia factor that streaming doesn’t. Overall sales remain low, but the rise is being noticed. Taylor Swift released music on CD single and cassette this year.