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Photo Credit: RIAA
Thanks in large part to 7% paid streaming growth, the US music industry generated all-time-high recorded revenue of $11.54 billion during 2025. However, both ad-supported and paid non-Premium streaming slipped.
These and other stats come from the RIAA’s newly released 2025 year-end report, which, like the H1 ’25 breakdown, calculated for wholesale revenue as opposed to estimated retail value.
At the top level, the pivot means reported figures are smaller than in years past; 2023’s headline revenue was $17.12 billion, for instance. But the trade organization also rolled out an interactive database compiling historical wholesale data and the all-important inflation-adjusted sums; technically, revenue has yet to top its late-90s peak in terms of actual value.
Back to 2025’s hard numbers, behind the 7% paid streaming growth, stateside subscriptions grew 6.5% YoY to 106.5 million.
Encouraging in light of price increases and different factors, the percentage and the subscription total more or less align with DMN Pro data. Unsurprisingly, then, Premium on-demand revenue jumped by a similar 6.8% YoY to crack $5.88 billion – thereby accounting for over half of the leading music market’s total recorded revenue.
Regarding not-so-positive streaming results, notwithstanding user additions, Spotify’s advert buildout, and inflation, ad-supported streaming (dubbed “free streaming” in the report) dipped 0.6% YoY to $1.79 billion, according to the resource.
(A decrease is a decrease, though given H1 2025’s 2.9% YoY free streaming falloff, the newer percentage means advert-powered listening picked up during the latter half of the year.)
With Spotify still pulling out all the stops in an effort to elevate advert revenue – and with ad-supported restrictions having been loosened this past September – it’ll be worth closely monitoring the category moving forward.
Rounding out streaming, paid non-Premium subs (including on limited-interactivity plans and bundled offerings “where music is not the primary service”) delivered $495.2 million, down 4.5% YoY. And “other streaming,” housing SoundExchange distributions and estimated payments from “similar direct deals,” fell 3.8% YoY to $1.31 billion.
Against the backdrop of steady streaming gains, permanent downloads’ long-running revenue contraction continued in 2025.
Nevertheless, a 33.5% YoY revenue spike for “other digital” – encompassing contributions from “kiosks, music video downloads, digital jukeboxes, and embedded services” like in-flight entertainment, in the RIAA’s own words – resulted in an only 0.8% YoY across-the-board downloads decline to $272.6 million.
Additionally, CDs’ own years-running woes led to an 11.6% YoY sales-volume decrease to 29.5 million units as well as a 7.8% YoY revenue contraction to $312.4 million.
But things were more positive for vinyl, which seemingly put its plateau concerns in the rearview by moving 46.8 million units (up 7.9% YoY) and generating $1.04 billion (up 9.3% YoY), per the report.
Finally, “other physical” including CD singles and cassettes moved slightly more units (2.18 million total) and achieved 16.5% YoY revenue growth to $25.8 million. And the narrowly defined sync category posted $407.1 million in revenue, down 1.3% YoY.
“The last 20 years have been marked by unprecedented transformation for recorded music – from the steady rise to dominance of anytime, anywhere streaming options as listeners enjoy tunes from their favorite artists to a resurgence of vinyl as both a listening experience and collectable art,” said RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier.
“And now, our industry is advancing free-market licensing, building responsible AI partnerships that enhance discovery, deepen fan engagement and unlock new creative possibilities for how music is made and experienced.
“Through it all, music remains a cornerstone of culture and a growing economic powerhouse for the US, contributing $212 billion to our GDP and supporting more than 2.5 million American jobs,” he concluded.
