The era of streaming is inching up on an incredible milestone as on-demand audio streams of songs have now surpassed the half-trillion mark in 2019 alone. According to Nielsen Music, 14.8 billion on-demand audio streams were registered this past week, bringing the year's tally to a total of 505.5. billion. It marks an uptick of 23% compared to the numbers posted this time last year.
The half-trillion mark was also met two months faster than it did in 2018 and points toward a finish of at least 1 trillion for both audio and video music streams by the end of the year.
Numbers are bolstered by leaders such as Ariana Grande's Thank U, Next album which boasts over 2 billion on-demand audio streams in 2019, making it the first album to do so this year. The second-most streamed album of the year goes to Billie Eilish's When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? with 1.887 billion.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Last year, five albums were able to hit the 2 billion mark with Drake's Scorpion leading the pack with 4.572 billion streams.
As it stands, audio and video streams currently sit at a total of 775.3 billion streams. In comparison, 2018 closed out with 901 billion streams total, growing a total of 43% from 2017's grand total of 631.2 billion. As 2019's number is already up 28% percent, that 1 trillion mark is not so out of reach.