The music industry has been showing massive surges in growth in recent years and new reports show it’s only getting bigger.

Thanks to the meteoric rise of music streaming in recent years profits in the music industry are rising for the first time in decades, and dramatically. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) have released a new report showing how considerable the growth is after 2017 saw the second consecutive year of growth.

The RIAA’s year-end music industry revenue report for 2017 shows that the American music industry grew by 16.5% in 2017. The total music revenues for the year were $8.7 billion which was in large part thanks to the music streaming industry which made roughly two-thirds of the profits – $5.7 billion.

2017 saw a massive rise in music subscriptions, which are much more valuable than ad-supported, free music streaming. A 56% rise in the number of American’s subscribed to music streaming services saw the total rise to 35 million paying users.

The RIAA still raise issues with the music industry as it stands, which last year they pointed to YouTube as the main culprit for underpaying artists. Now RIAA chairman and CEO Cary Sherman is looking to SiriusXM and broadcast radio for undervaluing music. He says:

Even as the shift to streaming powers the industry’s recovery, the digital migration also exposes the growing gap in our core rights – because, under current laws, not all platforms pay artists and labels fair rates reflecting market value for the use of their music.
This includes terrestrial AM/FM radio, which inexplicably pays artists and labels nothing for the commercial use of their music, and SiriusXM, which pays under a below-market rate standard set more than 20 years ago when Sirius and XM were mere start-ups instead of the merged, wildly successful satellite service it is today.

Elsewhere the industry isn’t showing quite the same levels of positive advancement with digital downloads falling 25% last year in the US. Physical music also decreased in revenue but with a less severe 4% decrease. Physical music’s survival is now largely aided by the resurgence of vinyl records which rose 10% last year for year-end profits of $395 million.