Total music consumption in 2017 in the US climbed 12.5 percent to 636.65 million units (up from 566.1 million). That figure adds together traditional album sales, track equivalent album units, and on-demand streaming equivalent album units from both video and audio streams. One track equivalent album unit is equal to 10 tracks sold. One streaming equivalent album unit is equal to 1,500 on-demand streams.
In terms of audio-only consumption (removing on-demand video streams from the equation), the gain was 10.2 percent, rising to 491.55 million units (from 446.12 million).
The R&B/hip-hop genre represented 24.5% of all music consumption in the U.S. in 2017 — the largest share of any genre and the first time R&B/hip-hop has led this measurement for a calendar year.
