For the first time ever, combined on-demand audio and video streams in the US have surpassed one trillion in a calendar year, with 1.002 trillion streams currently. It’s expected to reach as high as 1.2 trillion by the end 2019.
An on-demand stream refers to any digital audio/video downloaded by request and not listened to/watched a live stream. Examples include streaming services like Spotify and Netflix, as opposed to traditional television or radio.
For comparison, at the same time last year, there were 765.2 billion audio and video on-demand streams in the U.S., representing a 31% year-over-year growth. To put this in perspective, the U.S. has a population approximately 330 million people, so every American would have to stream over 3,000 songs on average to reach 1 trillion. Of course, the very old and the very young likely aren’t streaming as much or at all as millennials, Gen X/Z, or boomers, so that inflates the number even higher.
“Surpassing 1 trillion on-demand streams in less than a year underscores how fans are continuing to evolve in the way they listen to music,” David Bakula, head analytics & insights at Nielsen Music, told Billboard in a statement. “This explosive growth is being driven by today’s younger, more connected music fan, with 90% teens and millennials streaming music. Accessibility to new technology, affordable premium streaming plans and the proliferation connected devices will only serve to expedite the next trillion on-demand streams.”
Billboard | Photo credit: ISTOCKPHOTO