The numbers are in for 2017's music consumption and it just doesn't seem like people are into owning music as much as they once were.
According to Nielsen,total album sales and track equivalent sales for 2017 came to 224.6 million, which is down from the 277.9 million sold in 2016. Digital track sales amounted to 554.8 million, while in 2016 digital tracks were sold a whopping 724 million times. Physical albums didn't do so hot either, as 102.9 million were sold in 2017 and 123.2 million were sold in 2016. Though 14.3 million of the 2017 sales were vinyl, which is about a one-tenth increase over 2016. Digital streaming came to a massive 400.4 billion streams in 2016, or about a 60% increase over 2016. So as usual streaming wins again.
Metallica naturally came in at #1 for the rock charts, garnering 1.836 million sales between albums, digital tracks, and streaming equivalents. Hardwired to Self Destruct comprised 681,000 of those sales. Behind Metallica in order were Imagine Dragons with 1.775 million, The Beatles with 1.652 million, Linkin Park with 1.346 million, and Twenty One Pilots with 1.327 million.
Oh, and rock is still on the decline in terms of popularity. According to the report, rock was 20.8% of the market share for music, while hip-hop was 24.5%.
The biggest issue seems to be the lack of new rock acts breaking through the mainstream. Yes, great for Metallica and Linkin Park but those bands have been around forever, at this point.
What can be done to reverse this trend? It might be too late to find out.
