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Copyright2018 The Nielsen Company
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Nielsen Music Mid-Year Report, which provides an
exclusive glimpse at the music industry’s leading trends, data and
insights from the past six months.
The music industry is still in the thick of an exciting growth spurt
that led to 15-year record revenues for the major label groups in
2017 and has continued to break new consumption milestones.
The frst half of 2018 saw a six-month record of over 400 billion
on-demand streams, driven by record-breaking streaming
volume from artists like Drake, Post Malone, J. Cole and Cardi B.
Such achievements should help explain why R&B/Hip-Hop made
a big impact on radio too, accounting for 6 of the year’s
20 most-played radio songs.
Physical album sales are showing new signs of resilience too, as
independent retail events like Record Store Day continue to bring
music fans in droves. This year’s celebration led to the highest
non-holiday sales total at independent retail since 2005, and
extended vinyl’s hot streak as the format increases 19%
year-to-date.
Over the course of the next 20-plus pages, Nielsen Music has
compiled all the essential learnings you need to power the rest
of your 2018. And as always, we’d love to hear from you to learn
how we can provide more tools to prepare you for music’s
ever-changing landscape.
Erin Crawford
SVP Nielsen
Entertainment,
General Manager
Nielsen Music
THE FIRST HALF
OF 2018 SAW
A SIX-MONTH
RECORD OF OVER
400 BILLION
ON-DEMAND
STREAMS
Copyright2017 The Nielsen CompanyCopyright2018 The Nielsen Company
WHAT’S NEW FROM
NIELSEN MUSIC
Pandora is now fully integrated into Music Connect, informing Nielsen
Music’s Streaming Programmed (Total and Audio splits) and Streaming
On-Demand (Total and Audio splits) data.
Music Connect subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can now upgrade
for greater customization and control via real-time, direct access to
the Music Connect API.
Plays measured by Nielsen Music on paid-subscription tiers of
streaming services will be given more weight on Music Connect
calculations than those on ad-supported services. These will
be refected on the Billboard charts as well.
Daily building charts are now available in Nielsen’s Music
Connect Mobile app in the U.S. and Canada.Copyright2018 The Nielsen Company
CONTENTS
2018 MID-YEAR INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS
2018 MID-YEAR MOMENTS
2018 MID-YEAR TIMELINE
2018 IN MEMORIAM
2018 MID-YEAR CHARTS917
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NOTE: The term “total album equivalent consumption” in this report describes the number of
physical and digital albums that were sold and the total number of album equivalent songs from
downloads and song streaming volume. For the sake of clarity, the defnition of album equivalent
consumption does not include listening to music on broadcast radio or digital radio broadcasts.
Unless otherwise noted, all numbers are volume.