MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven record label, distribution, and rights management company.
Global recorded music revenues grew 9% YoY in 2022, to reach USD $26.2 billion.
That’s according to IFPI, the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, which launched its Global Music Report 2023 on Tuesday (March 21) at a press conference in London.
In dollar terms, according to the report, global recorded music revenues rose $2.2 billion in 2022, from $24 billion in 2021. In the prior year (2021), global recorded music revenues rose $3.7 billion, from $20.3 billion in 2020.
Last year (2022) marked the global music market’s eighth consecutive year of growth.
Within the report, which you can download here, IFPI points to paid subscription streaming as a key driver behind last year’s 9% growth.
Subscription audio streaming revenues increased by 10.3% YoY to $12.7 billion in 2022, according to IFPI’s report.
There were 589 million users of paid subscription accounts at the end of 2022.
Total streaming (including both paid subscription and advertising-supported) grew by 11.5% YoY to reach $17.5 billion in 2022, and accounted for 67% of total global recorded music revenues.
Elsewhere, IFPI reports that physical revenues grew 4% YoY, while performance rights revenue increased by 8.6%, which IFPI notes sees it “returning to pre-pandemic levels. Synchronisation revenues, meanwhile, grew 22.3% YoY.
IFPI has also broken its recorded music revenue growth figures out geographically, providing an insight into the performance of the recorded music sectors in various regions globally.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA,), for example, became the fastest-growing music region in 2022 with more than 30% growth (34.7%).
The SSA region’s growth was driven largely by what IFPI reports to have been a “significant boost to revenues” in the region’s largest market, South Africa, where recorded music revenues grew 31.4% YoY.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which was previously the fastest-growing recorded music market in 2021, had the third highest growth rate in 2022, seeing an increase of 23.8% YoY, and representing the highest share for streaming of any region globally (95.5%).
Meanwhile, recorded music revenues in Asia grew by 15.4% YoY with its largest market, Japan, seeing growth of 5.4%.
Asia’s second-largest market, China, grew by more than 20% (28.4%), and became a global top-five market for the first time. That means that France, which was previously the world’s fifth largest recorded music market is now sixth, according to the IFPI.
IFPI reports that Asia also accounted for almost half of global physical revenues (49.8%).
Elsewhere in the world, Australasia experienced growth of 8.1%, an increase on the prior year’s growth rate of +4.7%.
Australia, where recorded music revenues grew 8.1% YoY in 2022, remained a Top 10 market globally and New Zealand, which saw a rise in streaming revenues, saw overall recorded music market growth of 8%.
Revenues in Europe, the second-largest recorded music region in the world, grew by 7.5%, with the region’s three biggest markets, the UK Germany and France, growing 5.4%, 2.2% and 7.7%, respectively.
Latin America saw growth of 25.9%, “maintaining more than 10 years of regional increases” according to the IFPI, which noted further that “Every market in the region posted double-digit growth”.
The US and Canada – the world’s largest region in revenue terms – grew by 5% in 2022.
Meanwhile, Canada’s recorded music revenues increased by 8.1% YoY.
As of 2022, according to the IFPI, the world’s Top 10 music markets were:
1. USA
2. Japan
3. UK
4. Germany
5. China
6. France
7. South Korea
8. Canada
9. Brazil
10. Australia
“This year’s report tells the continued story of record companies’ commitment to their core mission – working with artists to help them achieve their greatest creative and commercial potential over the course of a career.”
Commenting on the release of the Global Music Report, IFPI Chief Executive Frances Moore, said: “This year’s report tells the continued story of record companies’ commitment to their core mission – working with artists to help them achieve their greatest creative and commercial potential over the course of a career.
“That requires an artist-label partnership that constantly evolves and innovates so that it can capitalise on opportunities in more business areas and more parts of the world.
Added Moore: “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. This is driving music’s development whilst enabling fans to seize the expanding opportunities to embrace and celebrate their own local artists and culture.
“However, as the opportunities for music continue to expand, so too do the areas in which record companies must work to ensure that the value of the music artists are creating is recognised and returned. This challenge is becoming increasingly complex as a greater number of actors seek to benefit from music whilst playing no part in investing in and developing it.”
