Global recorded music industry revenue by year. Photo Credit: IFPI
Following a nearly 19% year-over-year jump in global recorded music industry revenue during 2021, continued streaming growth drove a comparatively modest 9.2% increase during 2022, when revenue approached $26.2 billion, according to a newly released report.
These and other noteworthy figures emerged in a just-published 2023 analysis from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). According to the resource, 67% of the aforesaid $26.2 billion in worldwide recorded music industry revenue derived from streaming – up from roughly 65.5% in 2021 – as the category’s growth slowed to 11.5% (down from 23.9%).
Behind the percentage, the IFPI identified 589 million “users of paid subscription accounts” (an improvement of 66 million) and relayed that 48.3% of 2022’s overall industry revenue ($12.65 billion) had derived from subscriptions. Of course, ad-supported listeners produced the category’s remaining 18.7% of total revenue, or $4.90 billion, per the report.
Predictably, permanent downloads and “other digital” once again slipped, the IFPI communicated, dipping 11.7% (including a 19.6% decline for downloads) to generate around $943.2 million during 2022. Additionally, the IFPI attributed $2.46 billion or so in 2022 worldwide industry revenue to performance rights (up 8.6%) and relayed that sync had made up 2.4% of the market (approximately $628.80 million, up 22.3%).
Shifting to the physical side, vinyl, in keeping with 2022 sales data from countries including the US, the UK, Germany, and Japan, drove a 4.0% revenue increase in the category despite a 0.4% slip from CDs and other formats.
Worldwide vinyl sales are specifically said to have risen by 17.1%, with overall physical revenue having accounted for 17.5% of the market ($4.59 billion) on the year. Notably, amid ongoing industry growth in Asia – and notwithstanding vinyl’s well-documented resurgence in the West – the continent last year contributed 49.8% of the world’s total physical revenue, the organization communicated.
A breakdown of 2022 global recorded music industry revenue by segment. Photo Credit: IFPI
Expanding upon the latter, Asia’s industry revenue grew by 15.4%, according to the resource, as Japan’s recorded income expanded by 5.4%, enabling the nation to remain the second-largest music market in the world. Meanwhile, China’s own domestic industry is said to have posted 28.4% growth, and the country of about 1.41 billion residents supplanted France to become the fifth-largest market globally, the IFPI indicated.
All other regions except North America (5%), Europe (7.5%), and Australasia (8.1%) likewise achieved double-digit growth during 2022, including 23.8% for MENA (where streaming accounted for 95.5% of income), 25.9% for Latin America (which has now grown for 13 consecutive years; Brazil turned in a 15.4% gain to become the ninth-largest music market), and 34.7% for Sub-Saharan Africa (powered by a 31.4% hike in South Africa, up from 2.4% growth in 2021).
Elsewhere in the report, the IFPI took the opportunity to highlight the growing prevalence (and far-reaching potential pitfalls) of artificial intelligence.
“AI is not and will never be a substitute for human artistry, nor should developers of AI models be allowed to use artists’ recordings without authorisations, whether to train their models or to generate new content,” the IFPI penned.
“Furthermore, developers of AI models should be required to keep records of the content of others that they ingest and disclose the recordings used in the development of the models,” continued the entity, which weighed in on the subject as a number of organizations are joining the Human Artistry Campaign.