Those Crazy Frog ringtones we downloaded made up a higher percentage than we thought.

Last week we posted an infographic showing just how much musicians could expect to make from online sources in 2015, and the data showed that things were a little better than they were five years ago. However, that visual aid didn’t show just how much our music consumption has shifted from physical media to digital sources over the past few decades.

The GIF below – created by Digital Music News with data from the RIAA – tells a different side to the story, showing where recording revenue has come from over the past 41 years, starting in 1973 and ending in 2014. As you’d expect, there’s a noticeable shift from vinyl to CDs through cassettes over the latter part of the 20th century, with digital music and streaming taking over in recent years.

However, what’s surprising is how much more fragmented income sources are nowadays – paid subscriptions make up only 11.5%, which is only a little more than was made up by ringtone sales back in 2008. [via Digital Music News]

This GIF shows how much our music consumption has changed since 1973

Latest

Latest



		
	
Share Tweet