The 500 most streamed tracks in the US received just 10.7% of total audio streams in 2018, down from 14.6% in 2017. There were 36.3m different tracks streamed across the year, up from 33.2m in 2017.
https://cdn.mbw.44bytes.net/files/2019/01/BuzzAngle-Music-20...
What strikes me about a report like this is that the report is comfortable comparing sales to "consumption".
Are these really the same?
Third parties do not necessarily know how many times someone cues up a track on their turntable or tape deck. (Unless today's turntables and tape decks are being engineered to "phone home".) Instead they measure sales of physical media containing copies.
On the other hand, with respect to so-called "streaming" the report says about 85% of this type of consumption is from subscriptions. But curiously the report does not measure subscription sales/renewals.
Maybe I missed something.
As regards comparing consumption to sales: this is a fairly standard “equivalent” used in the music industry.
I’m unclear on what else you are saying. You say “so-called ‘streaming’” but why is it “so-called”? It’s pretty clear that the market has shifted to access over ownership or “so-called ‘streaming’”. Subscription streaming services are growing rapidly year-on-year. The stats are easy to find - perhaps the author didn’t feel it was necessary to quote numbers that are fairly widely discussed in mainstream and specialist media.
It is your job as the reader to invalidate some of his specific claims using sound logic and evidence. Which of his claims are you refuting?