Digital music sales continue to drop in 2014

What a difference a year – and a flood of new streaming services – can make.

This time last year digital album sales were enjoying a 18.1% increase on the previous year according to Nielsen SoundScan figures – a climb that has been cut off at the knees by the rush of streaming services either launching or increasing market-share at a rapid rate.

Taking the third week of 2014 as a test case, single track sales are down 11.9% from 2012, with digital album sales down 13.3%.

This is obviously troubling news for iTunes, whose own iTunes Radio launched late last year, but has failed to make as big a mark as predicted. Meanwhile, new streaming service Beats Music enjoyed a great launch week, sitting at #2 on iTunes free apps chart.

This is also bad news for content makers (in the ’90s we called them ’artists’) and labels, whose already diminishing revenue stream is drying up quicker than they’d like. Luckily, we are in the middle of a vinyl revival.