The line graph shows the percentage of total music sales from three different ways of buying music: streaming, downloads, and CDs – between 2011 and 2018.
Overall, the three methods moved in different directions. Streaming grew a lot, while downloads and CDs both went down over the whole period. By 2018, streaming had passed the other two and became the most popular way to buy music.
In 2011, CDs had the highest percentage of total music sales at 55%. Downloads were next at 35%, and streaming was only at 5%. Over the next two years, CD sales slowly dropped, while downloads steadily rose. Downloads passed CDs in the middle of 2013. Streaming stayed low during this time, growing just a little to 10% by 2013.
After 2014, things changed more. Downloads reached their highest point at about 43% in 2014, then fell to 30% by 2018. CDs kept falling too, going down from around 40% in 2013 to 25% in 2018. Streaming, on the other hand, grew quickly after 2013, rising from 10% to just over 40% of total music sales by the end of 2018.
