by Matt Bass
RIAA Vice President, Research | Gold & Platinum Operations
US recorded music revenues rose 4% to $8.7 billion in estimated retail value over the first half of 2024 and have grown for nine straight years, dating back to 2016.
As digital streaming entered its third decade in the US, paid subscriptions remained music’s workhorse, delivering nearly two-thirds of total revenues and averaging 99 million plans over the first half of the year (and well more than 100 million individual users since household plans count as a single subscription in our data).
At the same time, overall revenues continue to stand on a strong and wide foundation that music companies have worked for years to build. Vinyl records alone grew 17% this period and are currently on pace to again break the billion-dollar barrier by year’s end. This report comprises the broadest range of revenue categories ever — from traditional sync deals and ad-supported services to fitness platforms, emerging short-form video apps and beyond.
For the last 18 months, the music community has collaborated through the Human Artistry Campaign to support the development of healthy policies for AI that promote responsible innovation, boost the creative economy and shape the culture in pro-human, pro-artist ways. It’s vital that we establish baseline AI ground rules that center rights, responsibility and genuine creativity, allowing artists — and all of us — meaningful control over our work, our voices and our likenesses.
More recently, rightsholders have begun direct enforcement against rogue AI developers who exploit copyrighted recordings, compositions, images and more without obtaining permission or paying for what they use. RIAA is currently prosecuting two significant cases against venture capital funded AI music generation tools that have admitted using huge volumes of copyrighted music to “train” their models without obtaining consent.
And we have made great progress developing new legislation to strengthen existing rights for the challenges of the AI era, including Tennessee’s landmark ELVIS Act and the bipartisan NO FAKES Act working its way through Congress with extraordinarily broad cross-industry support.
Today’s snapshot of recorded music revenues reflects consistent growth and a hard-won sustainability in our industry as we continue hitting new record highs year after year. As we push to further strengthen and widen the foundation of rights these revenue streams are built on, we look forward to continued success and more opportunities for fans to engage with their favorite music.
