Recorded music sales are up quite a bit, but it's not all good news

The RIAA have released figures which boast a revenue growth of 11.4% for recorded music sales in 2016.

These are American sales figures only, but a decent metric nevertheless. The U.S. industry earned $7.65 billion in revenue during the past year, up from $6.87 million in 2015.

The growth of streaming is responsible for the upswing, with revenue up 68.5%, to $3.9 billion. For the first time, streaming accounts for more sales than downloads, CDs, and vinyl (and tapes too, we suppose) combined.

As Billboard points out, this $7.65 billion is a pleasing sign, but still rather paltry compared to the $14.6 billion haul the industry pulled in at its financial peak in 1999.