The graph below shows music sales by medium from 2011 to 2018.
Introduction
For the introduction, you only need to paraphrase the task question.
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Overview
→ Overview:
Overall, streaming sales experienced the greatest growth, while vinyl sales also rose minimally. In contrast, sales of the other two media declined significantly over the given period.
Plan your answer
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Sample Answer
The line graph compares music sales across four media between 2011 and 2018. Overall, streaming sales experienced the greatest growth, while vinyl sales also rose minimally. In contrast, sales of the other two media declined significantly over the given period.
Looking first at streaming and vinyl sales, in 2011 sales from streaming were in third place among the four, starting at just below $1 billion. From this point, this figure rose gradually to nearly $2.5 billion by 2015 when streaming surpassed downloads and CDs to become the medium with the highest revenues. Sales then rocketed to around $7.3 billion by 2018. Vinyl sales also rose, but at a significantly lower rate, from almost zero in 2011 to roughly half a billion dollars in 2011.
In contrast, sales from the remaining media saw a downward trend. In 2011, downloads brought in around $3 billion in sales, with CD revenues slightly below, at roughly $2.8 billion. From this year onward, sales of these two dropped continuously, with downloads ending the period at about $1 billion and CDs approximately $0.8 billion, roughly a threefold decrease.
Useful Vocabulary
- music sales = the amount of revenue generated from selling music
- experience the greatest growth = increase more than the other categories
- surpass = become higher than another figure
- the medium with the highest revenues = the format generating the largest amount of income
- rocket to = increased very quickly to reach a high value
- bring in = generate or produce revenue
- a threefold decrease = a reduction to about one third of the original figure
- see a downward trend = show a general pattern of decline
