Fueled by more than 50 million paid subscriptions, the U.S. music industry experienced its third year of consecutive growth in 2018 with retail revenues up 12% to $9.8 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA.)

RIAA's report for 2018 showed that revenues from streaming music platforms grew 30% year-over-year to reach $7.4 billion, contributing 75% of total revenues for 2018, and accounting for virtually all the revenue growth for the year. The streaming category includes a wide variety of formats including premium paid subscription services, ad-supported on-demand services (i.e. YouTube, Vevo, and ad-supported Spotify), and streaming radio services including those that distribute revenues through SoundExchange (including Pandora, SiriusXM, and other internet radio services).

Subscriptions to on-demand streaming services remained the biggest driver of increasing revenues for the music business, and for the first time accounted for more than half of total revenues for the year.

Revenues from shipments of physical products decreased to $1.15 billion, down 23% from 2017. At estimated retail value, CDs fell 34% to $698 million, the first time revenues from CDs were less than one billion dollars since 1986.

Vinyl records continued to be the exception to the decline of unit-based formats. Revenues from vinyl albums in 2018 totaled $419 million, an increase of 8% versus last year, and the highest level since 1988. By value, vinyl made up more than one-third of revenues from physical formats.