BuzzAngle Music has just released their 2017 Mid-Year Report. The report is always insightful when it comes to spotlighting overall music consumption with important  sales data that’s trending in the United States.

Top Highlights

  • Overall music consumption for 2017 YTD was up 9.9% over 2016 YTD (293.0 million project units in 2017 YTD vs. 266.6 million album project units in 2016 YTD).
  • Song Consumption for 2017 YTD was up 29.5% over 2016 YTD (1.5 billion song project units in 2017 YTD vs. 1.2 billion song project units in 2016 YTD).
  • Audio streams reached 179.8 billion, up 58.5% over 2016 YTD.
  • Subscription streams grew 69.3% and accounted for 78.6% of total audio streams in 2017 YTD, up from 73.6% in 2016 YTD.
  • Overall album sales were down 13.9% compared to 2016 YTD (74.0 million in 2017 YTD vs. 86.0 million in 2016 YTD).
  • Digital album sales in 2017 YTD were down 24.3% over the previous year (34.5 million in 2017 YTD vs. 45.6 million in 2016 YTD). Digital album sales accounted for 46.6% of all album sales in 2017 YTD, down from 53.0% over 2016 YTD.
  • Physical album sales were down 2.1% (39.6 million in 2017 YTD vs. 40.4 million in 2016 YTD). Physical album sales accounted for 53.4% of all album sales in 2017 YTD, up from 46.9% over 2016 YTD.
  • Vinyl album sales were up 20.4% over 2016 YTD while CD album sales were down 3.9%. Vinyl albums accounted for 4.9% of all physical album sales, up from 3.5% in 2016 YTD.
  • Song sales (downloads) in 2017 YTD were down 23.8% compared to 2016 YTD (313.3 million in 2017 YTD vs. 410.9 million in 2016 YTD).
  • In 2016, total on-demand streams never broke 10 billion for one week. During the first half of 2017, the average number of total on-demand streams per week is 10.8 billion with the highest streaming week being the week of 4/21/17 with 11.8 billion streams.
  • The artist with the most streams during the first six months of the year was Drake with 3.7 billion streams and the song with the most streams for the first half of 2017 was Bad and Boujeeby by Migos with 711.3 streams.
  • The most streamed album during the first half of the year was More Life by Drake with 1.8 billion streams.
  • Total album sales (combining CD & vinyl) on Record Store Day 2017 (4/22/17) at Independent Music Stores were up 6% compared to Record Store Day 2016 (4/16/16).
  • Vinyl album sales on Record Store Day 2017 (4/22/17) at Independent Music Stores were up 14% compared to Record Store Day 2016 (4/16/16).
  • The biggest week for vinyl album sales in 2017 so far was the week of April 21st, the same week as Record Store Day with more than 224,000 vinyl albums sold.
  • The biggest selling cassette album in 2017 so far is Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 with 3,934 sales. The top 3 selling cassette albums for the first six months are all Guardians of the Galaxy album mixes.
  • Download the full report here