Recent reports from RIAJ show Japan’s streaming market has grown 33.8% in 2019 from the previous year and doubled since 2017.

Japan ranks as the second biggest market in the world for recorded music, bringing in $2.75 billion over physical, digital, audio and video in 2019.

CD stays as Japan’s favourite medium though, generating $1.37 billion compared to subscription and ad funded streaming at $385 million in Japan. This gives CD a 68.9% of the recorded music market, down from 71.9% in 2018, against streaming at 19.3%, up from 14.6%. In other countries, such as the US, streaming holds much stronger at 4/5th of recording revenue in 2019.

The physical format fell by only 3% from 2018, but this shift from physical to digital will likely only continue over the next decade, as more people make the transition along with the rest of the world.