US labels body the RIAA has published its annual revenues report, covering the country’s recorded-music market. The headline is 3.1% year-on-year growth to $11.54bn.
Those are wholesale revenues – those earned by music rightsholders – and represents a slight uptick in growth from 2024’s 2.7% increase.
In 2025, the US recorded-music industry’s streaming revenues also grew by 3.1%, to $9.47bn. Within that, premium paid subscriptions were up 6.8% to $5.88bn, with an average of 106.5m paid accounts – up from 100m the previous year.
However, there was a decline of 4.5% for non-premium paid subscriptions to $495.2m. Those are services or tiers with limited interactivity (not fully on-demand) or which are bundled into wider services where music isn’t the sole focus – fitness for example.
The RIAA also reported a 0.6% decline in revenues for free streaming to $1.79bn. That’s free, ad-supported music and video services as well as social-media platforms.
The figures showed a 5% increase for physical music sales, with the industry reaping $1.38bn from those – $1.04bn from vinyl, which was up 9.3%, and $312.4m from CDs, which was down 7.8%.
The RIAA pointed out that this is the 19th consecutive year where vinyl sales grew in the US, and that the $1.04bn represents “nearly 50% of the format’s global value”.
The overall $11.54bn figure is a record total, although not when you adjust the RIAA’s historical stats for inflation. The sector has yet to near the peak of the physical era: an inflation-adjusted $16bn in 1999.
“2025 reveals a strong and stable music economy resulting from committed label investment and identification of new spaces to expand artists’ creativity,” said RIAA VP research and operations Matt Bass.
“From the ease of streaming to new vinyl to licensing responsible AI tools and services, labels are diversifying fan engagement.”
Meanwhile, CEO Mitch Glazier offered another couple of stats, with an eye on the policymakers who the RIAA and its members are lobbying for creator-friendly AI regulation.
“Music remains a cornerstone of culture and a growing economic powerhouse for the US, contributing $212bn to our GDP and supporting more than 2.5 million American jobs,” said Glazier, citing the ‘50 States of Music‘ study.
So, the US recorded-music market grew by 3.1% last year. The UK was up 5%; Germany grew by 2.3%; and Japan increased by 10%. All of which is preparing us for global body the IFPI’s Global Music Report later this week.
That’s when we’ll find out how these and other countries’ growth impacted the overall industry totals.
In the meantime, consultancy Midia Research has put out its own estimates for 2025, suggesting that the market grew by 9.4% to $39.5bn. However, in its case that figure includes ‘expanded rights’ – the money labels make from their involvement in merchandise, live music and brand deals among other sources.
US-based MusicWatch also put out some new stats in recent days, estimating that there were 148 million ‘music buyers’ in the US last year. That’s people paying for music in any way: streaming subscriptions, physical formats and downloads.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
