The music industry has made more money in 2015 from a century-old technology than ad-supported streaming
According to the mid-year report from the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl sales beat out ad-supported streaming - like Spotify or Pandora's free tier or YouTube - so far in 2015.
Vinyl LP and EP sales beat out ad-supported streaming in the first half of 2014 as well, but it appears the gap is getting bigger.
In the first half of 2014, vinyl LP and EP sales netted an estimated $145.8 million compared to $128.0 million from ad-supported, on-demand streaming. One year later, vinyl sales had grown in value by 52.1% to $221.8 million while the ad-supported streaming grew by only 27.1% to $162.7 million.
Paid digital subscriptions, on the other hand, dominated both vinyl and ad-supported streaming in terms of sheer value. In the first half of 2014, paid subscriptions brought in $382.7 million, growing by 24.9% to $477.9 million for the first half of 2015. The digital royalty group SoundExchange brought in $387.2 million in the first half of 2015, up 19.7% from the first half of 2014.
Despite the jump in vinyl, physical media accounts for only 24% of units shipped in 2015 so far, down from 29% last year.
Read the full report on the RIAA's site.