Music sales value: digital and physical music from Spain 2001-2023

Since the first records in 2006, sales of music consumed in digital format has only experienced growth, turning the tables of the audio format industry in 2016, year in which sales from music recorded digitally surpassed those of music in physical formats. In 2023, the sales value of digital music in Spain stood at 403.5 million euros, whereas physical formats amounted to only 62 million euros during the same year. This represented an increase in the sales of music in physical formats compared to 2023.

Streaming subscriptions – a gold mine for the music industry

Streaming is the new downloading, according to the most recent figures. Most of the revenues generated from the digital music industry in Spain originated in streaming services, with a turnover that amounted to 218 million euros in 2019 that was expected to reach 327 million by the year 2025. These earnings were majorly a result of the distribution of streaming subscriptions, which returned revenues of about 157 million euros during the same period.

Spotify – the indisputable leader of music streaming

There were more monthly searches on Spotify than on any other music streaming platform in Spain in 2018, as the latest data show. The Swedish media provider clocked up 673 thousand searches per month on its platform in 2018, representing a much larger figure than the runner-up on the list, YouTube, which recorded 74 thousand monthly searches throughout the same year. As reported by almost half of the Spaniards in 2020, these platforms are used mainly in their free-of-charge versions, with only 32 percent of the population having a paid subscription to use their services.