In several different ways, the modern era of the U.S. recorded music business can date its origins to the year 2015.
That was the year that Apple Music and TIDAL debuted in the United States; the year that streaming finally matured, taking up the baton as the dominant revenue stream among all formats in the country; and the year that, after more than a decade of decline, the business finally began to see its first shoots of growth, kicking off an upward trend that has still, 10 years later, not abated. This week, Luminate released its annual midyear report on the U.S.
business, providing a relatively convenient bookend to the first 10 years of what can reasonably be referred to as the official streaming era. The midyear charts threw up a few surprises (the enduring success of Benson Boone ’s “Beautiful Things” led to it becoming the most-streamed song of 2024 so far) and some more obvious conclusions ( Taylor Swift , of course, dominated the album charts with The Tortured Poets Department ). But it also revealed several milestones and achievements that have not happened in the past 10 years of the Luminate (and, prior to it, MRC Data and Nielsen) reports.
So with the caveat that it’s still just the midway mark, and release dates and other factors weigh more heavily in smaller sample sizes, here are five stats that demonstrate that the first half of 2024 has been the most unusual year of the past decade. The Sheer Scale of Taylor’s Dominance Swift’s Tortured Poets .