Worldwide sales of music have increased by nearly 10% in 2018,  being the fourth consecutive year of growth thanks to online streaming platforms. However, downloads and physical sales continue to fall.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry reports in its global music report that profits for 2018 have reached $ 19.1 billion.

"We are now much more optimistic," said Francis Moore, head of the federation. 

However, the increase of 9.7% is mainly due to the streaming industry, with profits of almost half of the total. While downloads and physical sales continue to fall.

The streaming industry, which includes subscriptions and ads profits, rose 34 percent to $ 8.9 billion in 2018.

255 million users have paid for streaming services over the past year.

Paid downloads dropped 21.2% and physical sales by 10.1%.

Despite the growing presence of paid subscription, security remains a problem with at least 120 million users illegally downloading music each month.

"They take the music out of the stream and quite often do not even pay. Whole discographies can be downloaded with torrents, "says Moore.

Europe's minimum sales growth is 0.1%.

According to the report, some of the most listened artists for the past year were Cuban-American star Camila Cabello, Canadian rapper Drake and Brit Ed Sheeran.

When it comes to albums or music from movies, hit is the musical "The Great Showman", the South Korean BTS band and the American star Lady Gaga.

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