--- title: Digital Music Sales Reach All-Time High of $4.51 Billion description: Together, downloads and audio-streaming services now account for 64% of the total market by value. canonical: https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-19T04:24:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T08:16:57.236Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Digital Music Sales Reach an All Time High og:description: Downloads and streaming now account for 64% of the total market og:url: https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt21e6571a9917f7e0/698784472dce013ce79de1c5/ap284724976532.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Spotify og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Digital Music Sales Reach an All Time High twitter:description: Downloads and streaming now account for 64% of the total market twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt21e6571a9917f7e0/698784472dce013ce79de1c5/ap284724976532.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Digital Music Sales Have Reached an All-Time High of $4.51 Billion by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 19, 2015 4:24 AM CUT  Spotify app Spotify appDaniel Bockwoldt—DPA/AP by [Sabrina Toppa](/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa Mar 19, 2015 4:24 AM CUT Sales of digital music formats hit $4.51 billion in 2014 — a record level, [says](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/d1f4e3e8-d3e0-fcee-bb55-fd8b35bc8785.pdf "undefined") Wednesday’s report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Streaming services gained ground in particular, notching up $1.87 billion overall in 2014 — an increase in value of one-third from 2013 — and overtaking CDs for the first time. Rhapsody, Spotify, Pandora and SiriusXM were the leaders in the streaming segment. Paid subscriptions earned a total of $7.7 million in 2014. Overall, RIAA reported a retail revenue value of $6.97 billion last year. The figure is slightly down from the previous year and points to a flat revenue picture for the industry, which has long worried about revenue decline from digital music piracy and the obsolescence of physical formats like CDs. Together, downloads and audio-streaming services now account for 64% of the total market by value. Permanent downloads remain the largest source of revenue at 37%. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/"},"headline":"Digital Music Sales Have Reached an All-Time High of $4.51 Billion","datePublished":"2015-03-19T04:24:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T08:16:57.236Z","description":"Downloads and audio-streaming services now account for 64% of the total market","url":"https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/","keywords":["Music","Spotify","Pandora"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt21e6571a9917f7e0/698784472dce013ce79de1c5/ap284724976532.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt21e6571a9917f7e0/698784472dce013ce79de1c5/ap284724976532.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Spotify","caption":"Spotify","creditText":"Daniel Bockwoldt—DPA/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3750308/music-digital-downloads-sales-streaming-revenue/","name":"Digital Music Sales Have Reached an All-Time High of $4.51 Billion"}}]}] ```