Spotify, YouTube, Other Streaming Platforms Exceed Trillion In 2019

Streaming platforms like those of Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT, Alphabet Inc.'s GOOGL, and Apple Inc. AAPL dominated music consumption in 2019 as sales of physical albums continued their downward spiral, according to the annual survey of Nielsen Music.

What Happened

The total number of streams on music streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Music crossed one trillion in 2019, 30% higher than the previous year, the Nielsen survey said, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The internet-based streamers dominate the market, constituting about 82% of the entire music consumption in the U.S., the Journal reported.

Meanwhile, physical album sales dropped another 19% last year, and now make up for about 9% of the total market, according to the Nielsen survey.

Nielsen Music, the music data analytics business of Nielsen Holdings p.l.c. NLSN, was acquired by Billboard's parent company Valence Media in December last year.

According to the Nielsen survey, hip-hop was the most popular genre of the year, making up for about 28% of the streams, followed by rock at 20% and pop at 14%, the Journal noted.

Among individual performers, Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" was the most heard song of the year with 2.5 billion audio and video streams.

Taylor Swift's Lover was the most sold album of the year, and Post Malone's "Hollywood's Bleeding" was the top album by a combination of sales and streams.