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Streaming Now Officially the Number One Way We Listen to Music in America (pitchfork.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-we-listen-to-music dept.

An anonymous reader writes: It's official: according to a new year-end report released by Nielsen, over the course of 2016, streaming became the primary mode of music consumption in the U.S. Overall on-demand audio streams surpassed 251 billion in 2016 -- a 76 percent increase that accounts for 38 percent of the entire music consumption market. Plus, "the on-demand audio streaming share [of total music consumption] has now surpassed total digital sales (digital albums + digital track equivalents) for the first time in history." Nielsen's data is in line with others' findings.

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. I'd listen to more of my purchased music... by Chmarr · · Score: 4, Informative

    ,,, but iTunes is an interface abomination.

    1. Re:I'd listen to more of my purchased music... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      They have no clue how much I listen to my ripped music.

  2. Headline is clickbait BS by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Nielsen report says nothing about how people listen to music. The report is about how people directly pay for music (either through streaming subscriptions or more traditional sales) and does not include radio (the audience isn't paying a direct fee for those, after all) or any other form of listening that isn't directly paid for by the listener.

    The only way the headline would ever be valid would be if people purchasing CDs and MP3s listened to them once and then destroyed them, which is almost never going to be the case.