Nielsen Music's Q3 2017 report has some excellent news for the ever-growing music streaming market: a 40.5 percent-plus jump in music consumption from the same time in 2016.
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Billboard reports that the first three quarters of 2016 saw approximately 315 billion on-demand streams, a metric nearly surpassed in 2017 by just the end of Q2. The 40.5 percent increase in streams is likewise up from the 36.4 percent growth rate clocked by Nielsen just three months ago, proving that the market still has plenty of growth headroom.
Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito," this year's most-streamed track so far, has already pulled in 1.11 billion streams. That's almost twice what Desiigner's "Panda" had achieved by the end of Q3 last year. Furthermore, another six tracks have also surpassed the 674.4 million streams that Desiigner's "Panda" had by this time last year.
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On the album side, Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. currently leads the charge with 2.35 million consumption units, with Ed Sheeran and Drake's 2017 offerings coming in second and third at 2.13 million and 2 million, respectively.
Both physical album sales and single track downloads showed continued declines, while vinyl album sales notched a slight 3.1 percent increase. The best-selling vinyl album of the year so far? The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which isn't totally surprising, given its recent 50th-anniversary special-edition reissue.
