IFPI Global Music Report 2024

The global recorded music market records growth for the ninth consecutive year 

Global recorded music revenues grew by 10.2% in 2023, a positive increase from the 9% growth rate recorded in 2022, climbing to a total of $28.6 billion. This marks the global music market's ninth consecutive year of growth.

Paid subscription streaming reaches a milestone

For the first time, the number of streaming subscription accounts passed 500 million, reaching an annual total number of paid subscription users (accounting for shared accounts) globally of 677 million.^[1] Subscription streaming alone grew by 11.2%. Streaming revenues now make up 67.3% of the global market, consisting of 48.9% subscriptions, with the remainder being ad-supported.

Revenue from streaming also increased as many of the leading streaming services increased subscription fees in key territories. For the majority of these streaming platforms 2023 was the first time that their fees had been increased since their launch.^[2] Total streaming revenue has now reached $19.3 billion.

Is the physical music sector seeing a renaissance? 

For the third year in succession physical music has seen growth: in 2023 physical music revenues were up by 13.4%, a marked increase in growth from 2022’s 3.8%. Physical accounted for just under 17.8% of the overall market share, a 0.3% increase on 2022 (in the context of a growing market). This was significantly boosted by Asia sales, particularly from K-Pop acts.

Which country has the biggest music industry?

There was revenue growth in every region globally, with the top 10 markets by revenue all performing strongly and continuing to grow. Key takeaways are:

• The US held its top position as the world’s largest single market for recorded music, with a growth of 7.2% (up from 5.1% in 2022). The US and Canada combined make up 41% of the global recorded music revenues.
• Europe as a whole remains the second largest market for recorded music, representing a combined 28.2% market share. Within Europe the two strongest performers, the UK and Germany, both grew at 8.1% and 7.6% respectively.
• Japan represents the world’s second largest market by revenue (for an individual country) and demonstrated strong growth of 7.6%. The big news from the Asia region is that, whilst China is still the world’s fifth largest single market for now, it represented the fastest growth of a top 10 market at 25.9%.
• Finally, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa both performed strongly as the markets continue to develop. In the fourteenth consecutive year, recorded music revenues in Latin America outpaced the global growth rate, up by 19.4%. Sub-Saharan Africa had the fastest growth of any region (when compared to Asia as a region, rather than China alone) where revenues climbed by 24.7%.

Comment

As expected, streaming continues to power the global music revenues, with figures portraying the music industry’s health in an optimistic way. The number of global paid subscription users reaching 667 million in the same year as subscription fees increased demonstrates the continued demand for music consumption. It will be interesting to see whether this growth can be sustained into 2024, or whether the higher price-point pushes some users back to ad-supported services.

All revenue formats (other than downloads) showed strong growth, and the notable performance of physical sales revenues will be an interesting trend to follow – has this stabilised as a niche collector community, or is there a more fundamental drive by a subset of consumers to “own” music once again?

The music industry is going through a transformative period. With the growth of AI, staff numbers across the industry have been hit by significant layoffs, despite these positive underlying revenue figures.^[3] There are more challenges to come as the industry adapts to change. 

Click here to view the IFPI’s Global Music Report 2024 in full.