MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a single data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven record label, distribution, and rights management company.
On-demand song streams in the US grew 12.2% in 2022, driven by superstars like Bad Bunny, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift.
That’s according to US market monitor Luminate (formerly MRC Data / Nielsen Music), which published its Year-End report for 2022 on Wednesday (January 11, 2023), which you can download here.
That 12.2% growth translated to 1.3 trillion on-demand (Audio + Video) song streams in the US last year.
Globally, total on-demand song streams (Audio + Video) grew 25.6% in 2022 to reach 5.3 trillion in total, compared to 4.2 trillion on-demand song streams in 2021 (see below).
On-demand audio song streams globally rose 22.6% YoY to 3.4 trillion according to Luminate’s report.
On-demand video song streams, meanwhile, were up 31.2% in 2022 to 1.9 trillion.
In the United States, on-demand audio streams grew 12.1% to reach 1.1 trillion.
Total Album Consumption (TAC) of all music in the United States rose 9.2% to 974.9 million album-sale-equivalent units in 2022 (see below).
Luminate’s ‘Total Album Consumption’ (TAC) metric combines all on-demand track streams, plus all track downloads, plus all album sales on digital and physical formats.
The formula for ‘TAC’ equates 1,250 premium streams, or 3,750 ad-supported streams, to one album ‘sale’ .
It also equates 10 digital track purchases/downloads to one album ‘sale’.
Of those 974.9 million album-sale-equivalent (TAC) units in 2022, 703.9 million, or 72.2%, were registered by ‘Catalog music’.
This means that ‘Current’ Music’s share of Total Album Consumption in the United States in 2022 was 27.8%, or 270.9 million TAC units.
While the popularity of ‘Current’ music rose just 0.5% in the US in 2022, the popularity of ‘Catalog’ music grew 12.9%, according to Luminate’s report (see below).
Luminate defines ‘Current’ as anything released in the 18 months prior to it getting streamed/downloaded/purchased.
Anything older than 18 months when it’s streamed/downloaded/purchased is defined as ‘Catalog’.
Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti topped the Year End ‘Top Albums’ chart (Album + TEA + On-Demand SEA) with 3.4 million Total Album Consumption units in the United States and 4.266 billion on-demand audio streams.
According to Luminate, nearly 1 in every 14 Latin audio / video streams, since its release, is a song from Un Verano Sin Ti.
At No.2, with 3.294 million TAC units registered across 2022, was Taylor Swift’s Midnights. The album generated 1.791 billion on-demand audio streams, and 1.8 million album sales, according to Luminate (see below).
Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, meanwhile, generated 2.204 million Total Album Consumption units, 1.836 billion on-demand audio streams, and 757,000 album sales in 2022.
Music Business Worldwide
