Streaming boosts recorded music revenue, China market growing

GLOBAL recorded music revenues rose 9 per cent last year to US$26.2 billion, with growth registered in every region and an increase in paid subscription streaming helping drive sales, a report said on Tuesday (Mar 21).

Among the trends highlighted by the IFPI, a trade body for the recorded music industry, were China nudging into the top five markets globally for the first time, and income from the use of recorded music in adverts, film, television and games, rising by 22.3 per cent.

Revenues from CDs, vinyl and other physical formats rose 4 per cent to US$4.6 billion, a slower rate than 2021’s growth of 16.1 per cent, which was boosted by a post-pandemic recovery, the IFPI’s Global Music Report said.

Subscription audio streaming revenues rose 10.3 per cent to US$12.7 billion, IFPI said, adding there were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts by end-2022. Overall, streaming accounted for 67 per cent of total recorded music revenues.

Global music revenues enjoyed their eighth consecutive year of growth.

“Record companies’ investment and innovation has helped make music even more globally interconnected than ever, building out local teams around the world, and working with artists from a growing variety of music scenes,” IFPI chief executive Frances Moore said.

“This is driving music’s development whilst enabling fans to seize the expanding opportunities to embrace and celebrate their own local artists and culture.”

Total streaming, which includes both paid subscription and advertising-supported, increased 11.5 per cent to US$17.5 billion.

Also boosting growth were rising performance rights revenues which increased by 8.6 per cent, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Only downloads and other non-streaming digital formats saw revenues decline, falling 11.7 per cent.

Recorded music revenues rose around the world, led by sub-Saharan Africa which registered a growth rate of 34.7 per cent, followed by Latin America with 25.9 per cent, Middle East and North Africa with 23.8 per cent, Asia with 15.4 per cent and Australasia with 8.1 per cent.

Revenues in Europe rose 7.5 per cent, while USA & Canada saw gains of 5.0 per cent. US revenues, the world’s single biggest market, gained 4.8 per cent, exceeded US$10 billion for the first time.

Puerto Rican singer and rapper Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti topped the 2022 IFPI Global Albums Chart while Britain’s Harry Styles won the IFPI Global Single of the Year Award 2022 for hit As It Was, the body said last month. REUTERS