For the US music industry, the song remains the same.
Total sales in 2013 — including CDs, digital downloads and music streaming — reached $7 billion, flat with 2010 levels, according to a sneak peek at a year-end report from the Recording Industry Association of America due out Tuesday.
In fact, with sales in both 2011 and 2012 inching up to just $7.1 billion, the 2013 results will extend the US music sales rut to four years.
While the overall music picture is less than upbeat, there is some good news: Revenue from digital streaming soared 39 percent last year, to $1.4 billion, compared to 2012, the report will show, sources said.
That revenue includes music outlets as diverse as digital radio players such as iHeart, Pandora and SiriusXM to video outlets like Google’s YouTube and Vevo.
The music business gave the biggest sign yet it is shifting away from paid digital downloads toward an access model that sees customers paying monthly fees for access to an all-you-can-eat buffet of tunes.
Paid subscription services, like Spotify, took in a collective $628 million in 2013, a 57 percent increase over the prior year, sources told The Post.
The RIAA report is expected to reveal a further decline in the digital paid download business, dominated by Apple’s iTunes store. Revenue fell 1 percent in 2013, said sources who have seen the report.
Even Beyoncé’s “The Visual Album,” a hugely successful digital-only album released at the end of 2013, couldn’t push the paid download business into growth mode.