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Streaming is expected to continue to gain steam in the years ahead, according to the 2020 Streaming Forward report, conducted by MIDiA Research for the Digital Media Association, whose members are Apple Music, Amazon, Google/YouTube, Pandora and Spotify.

By 2026, the report projects that streaming revenue will reach nearly $18 billion in the U.S. In 2019, U.S. streaming revenues grew by about 20% over 2018 totals to $10.3 billion.

Streaming—with 99 million subscriptions and 117 million listeners of ad-supported streaming in the U.S. alone—is on track to surpass terrestrial radio's audience, the report stated.

The research for the report was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"When the dust finally settles on 2020, we will be looking at a music business that has been changed by COVID-19," Mark Mulligan, managing director, MIDiA Research, stated in a letter at the beginning of the report. "Some of these changes will be in passing, but some, such as new behavior patterns, will become long-term market attributes. Many of these shifts, such as more streaming at home, are in fact previously emerging trends that have been catalyzed by stay-at-home measures. There will be many lockdown legacies, but one that is looking increasingly likely is that streaming's role in the music industry will become both wider and deeper."