US music streaming consumption doubles in 2015

The US has seen yet another massive increase in streaming consumption during 2015, Nielsen Music reports that the number of tracks streamed - both audio and video - has nearly doubled going from 164.5 billion songs to 317.2 billion.

Billboard reports that Fetty Wap’s “Trap Queen” tops the list of most streamed songs with over 616 million, followed by Silento’s “Watch Me” with 563 million and Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!” with 555 million. 

The list is slightly different when looking at audio-only services: whilst Fetty Trap is still in first place, the second position is occupied by The Weeknd’s “The Hills” and the third by Drake’s “Hotline Bling”. The Weeknd actually hold three spots in this particular Top-10. 

Sales of digital downloads have declined by 12.5% over 2014, maintaining the same rate of decline registered in 2013/2014, whilst digital album sales declined by just 2.9%, an improvement over previous years. Digital album sales may have held up better in 2015 due to the decision by a few high-profile artists, including Adele, not to make their music available on streaming services during the first few weeks of release. 

On the physical front, Adele dominated sales with 7.4 million copies sold, Taylor Swift was a distant second with 1,9 million copies of "1989". Vinyl sales continued to increase in 2015, growing by 30% over the previous year. 

(Andrea Leonelli)