Overall Music Consumption – Sales & Streaming Activity – Down 3.3% from Last Year

New York – July 3, 2014 – Nielsen, the entertainment industry’s leading music data information provider, reveals 2014 mid-year U.S. music sales, airplay and streaming data for the six-month period of Dec. 30, 2013 through June 29, 2014. Nielsen SoundScan measures U.S. point-of-sale of recorded music product. Nielsen BDS captures U.S. radio airplay and music streams. Both systems power many of the Billboard charts.

For the first six months of 2014, sales of albums were down 14.9 percent vs. the first six months of 2013. Vinyl Album Sales and On-Demand streaming continue to show strong gains: Vinyl LP sales were up 40.4 percent and overall On-Demand streaming was up 42 percent over last year, with on-demand audio up 50.1 percent and on-demand video up 35.2 percent.

“With On-Demand streams surpassing 70 billion songs in the first six months of 2014, streaming continues to be an increasingly significant portion of the music industry,” said David Bakula, SVP Nielsen Entertainment. “Streaming’s 42 percent year-over-year growth and Vinyl LP’s 40 percent increase over last year’s record-setting pace shows interest in buying and consuming music continues to be robust, with two very distinct segments of the industry expanding substantially.”

For the complete release, including sales, record company market share, and top song and record data, click here.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Contact Information

Scoop Marketing: Anna Loynes818-761-7159 / aloynes@solters.com

Nielsen Soundscan: soundscan@nielsen.com