In 2024, the total revenue of the recorded music industry amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars. Global streaming revenues reached **** billion U.S. dollars in the same year. Overall, recorded music increased by nearly **** percent, representing a steady growth rate compared to the previous year. Music streaming – the motor of the industry Data on the revenue generated by the different segments of the music industry worldwide show that music streaming is responsible for by far the biggest share in the industry in recent years. The streaming revenue has been growing year by year since the late 2000s and early 2010s and overtook the revenue from physical sales as of 2017. With two thirds of the global music revenue in 2024 coming from streaming, it was undoubtedly the backbone of the industry. Smaller regional markets are catching up While the global music market rose by around five percent in 2024, this growth rate varied significantly when broken down regionally. Whereas growth in the biggest regional music markets, North America, Asia and Europe, remained in single digits, the music markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the MENA region grew at a fairly high rate respectively.

The global music industry continues to evolve, with streaming services dominating revenue sources in 2024. Subscription audio streams accounted then for more than half of the industry's revenue at **** percent, while ad-supported streams contributed an additional **** percent. This shift towards digital consumption has reshaped the landscape, pushing traditional formats like physical sales and downloads to smaller market shares. Streaming's dominance grows As streaming platforms solidify their position, they now represent ** percent of the total global recorded music revenue. This trend reflects changing consumer preferences, with audiences favoring access models over ownership. The extensive range of titles available on platforms like Spotify for a set rate has contributed to this shift. Despite the overall growth, digital downloads revenue have seen a decline, contributing less than **** percent to the annual total in 2024. Regional disparities in digital music revenue While streaming leads globally, the digital music market shows significant regional differences. The United States stands at the forefront with **** billion U.S. dollars in revenue from the digital music segment, followed by China at *** billion. France trails behind with *** billion dollars, highlighting the vast gap between markets. These disparities underscore the varying rates of digital music adoption and market maturity across different countries.

In 2024, streaming revenues reached **** billion U.S. dollars worldwide, the highest ever recorded and nearly ***** times the figure given for 2015, when music streaming revenue amounted to *** billion. Streaming revenues now account for over ** percent of total global recorded music revenue. The music industry is changing Over the last two decades, the music industry has been heavily impacted by the development of technology and the internet. Physical sales were the main source of revenue in the music industry before digital formats were invented. Even in 2000, U.S. album shipments still amounted to around *** million U.S. dollars before dropping each year until the figure stood at just ** million in 2023. This development is also mirrored in music industry revenue trends. Streaming has dramatically increased its share of U.S. music industry revenue, making up ** percent in 2023, up by almost ** percent from the figure recorded in 2017. Meanwhile, the share of music revenue generated by physical sales has decreased in equal measures, and in 2022 accounted for just ** percent of the total. Streaming platforms With over 700 million paying music subscribers worldwide, streaming platforms have become an essential part of the music industry’s landscape. Swedish streaming giant Spotify has dominated the market for years and commands roughly one third of music streaming subscribers globally. On the other hand, Apple Music, making up **** percent of the market, and Amazon with **** percent, have struggled to keep up with Spotify’s growing audience. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Spotify’s revenue from its premium subscribers hit *** billion euros and the climbing number of ad-supported users brought in an additional *** million euros. By comparison, just seven years earlier in the corresponding quarter of 2016, Spotify’s premium subscriber revenue was *** million euros and its ad-supported revenue just at nearly *** million euros.

In 2018, preliminary estimates suggested that the total revenue of the global music industry amounted to ***** billion U.S. dollars, up from just under ** billion a year earlier. The figure is expected to consistently increase each year and surpass ** billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

While music streaming had been generating the vast majority of the global music market revenue for several years, in 2024, revenue from streaming also recorded the highest growth of all music segments, at *** percent. In fact, music streaming dominated the digital music market at the expense of other formats, such as downloads and other digital or physical sales who were the only segments shrinking in revenue in 2024.

In 2019, global music industry revenues are expected to reach around ** billion U.S. dollars in total, increasing by more than **** billion dollars in the past five years. Digital music streaming has rapidly become the industry’s biggest revenue generator, accounting for over **** of all revenue. The importance of physical sales and digital music downloads is expected to decrease further in the coming years while even more of the market’s revenues shift into streaming. Streaming music The growing popularity of music streaming subscriptions is especially evident when looking at the monthly active user count of some of the industry’s top services. As of 2018, both Spotify and Apple Music were nearing ** million monthly active users, while services such as Pandora and SoundCloud reported numbers of well over ** million. Music industry Although consumption habits have changed dramatically over the years, music has remained a crucial element of the entertainment industry around the world. In addition to recorded music, which accounts for the majority of the industry’s income, live music revenues amount to over ***billion U.S. dollars annually. Some of the world’s top selling artists such as Madonna and Elton John have certified sales in the hundreds of millions, further demonstrating the widespread appeal and influence of the industry and its artists.

In 2024, recorded music revenues in the Middle East and North Africa grew by **** percent, making this the fastest growing region among the seven taken into consideration in an annual report. The second-fastest growing region in terms of revenue was Sub-Saharan Africa, who followed closely behind with a growth of **** percent. Latin America, in turn, followed closely behind as well, having grown by **** percent. By contrast, the revenue growth in the rest of the world remained in single digits.

In 2024, physical music sales generated *** billion U.S. dollars, whereas digital music sales made *** billion worldwide. The majority of global music revenue now comes from streaming, and accounted for more than ** billion U.S. dollars in total industry revenue in 2024.

A recent study exploring the global music industry forsaw that revenues from live music events would grow by ******percent in 2025, reaching over ** billion U.S dollars that year. The market estimates are showing promising growth to pre-pandemic levels and revenue figures surpassing ** billion dollars by the end of 2030. Concerts amid COVID-19 The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic dealt a heavy blow to the live music sector as concert venues closed, tours were halted, and festivals rescheduled. But while some events were canceled or postponed indefinitely, others were merely moved online to let music lovers enjoy performances by their favorite artists in a socially distant manner. In Europe, for example, the share of festivalgoers who watched a live music stream during coronavirus lockdowns stood at ** percent, with a similar share of survey respondents stating they would happily pay to do so. Live stream concerts have become popular alternatives to in-person shows in recent years, and while some artists uploaded pre-recorded concert films to video streaming platforms, others took the virtual stage in gaming apps Fortnite or Roblox. Most successful live music tours The live music sector awoke from a deep slumber in 2021 as social distancing measures were loosened and travel bans lifted in many parts of the world. Two years later, looking at the top-grossing concert tours that year, Taylor Swift was taking over the concert market, with her tour's earnings reaching over *** billion U.S. dollars. Beyonce's tour ranked second that year, however, the grosses trailed behind at the level of *** billion dollars.

In 2024, global music revenue generated by digital music and downloads continued its decline compared to recent years, at the level of *** billion U.S. dollars. It was the lowest figure reported since 2005. Music streaming is still in the lead The music industry has undergone fundamental changes due to the shifts in consumer demand and behavior. In 2024, global recorded music revenue hit an all-time high of around **** billion U.S. dollars, and while this figure was partially fueled by the revival of the live music sector, the top driver of growth was streaming. Music streaming accounted for an estimated ** percent of industry revenues in 2024, whereas digital downloads contributed less than ***** percent to the annual total. Audiences have come to prefer access models over ownership in recent years, which is no surprise considering the extensive range of titles available for a set rate on platforms like Spotify. Best-selling titles Most music lovers listen to their favorite tracks and discover new artists via streaming platforms. And yet, some fans also choose to pay for individual music purchases, be it via digital downloads or in physical formats. In 2023, Seventeen's “FML” was the best-selling music album worldwide, with over *** billion units sold. The K-pop band featured two of its albums in the same ranking that year. However, when it comes to vinyl, Taylor Swift led the ranks there. Her albums took up the top three spots on a list oftop-selling vinyl albums that same year.

According to a 2020 study exploring the global music industry, worldwide live music sponsorship revenues will amount to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. The projected figure for 2020 was *** billion U.S. dollars, with ticket sales for that year estimated at around ***** billion. The effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the live music industry have been extremely detrimental to revenue generation, affecting artists, venues, and events companies alike. Whilst it is anticipated that live will begin to recover in 2021, naturally this depends on the amount of venues able to reopen, the size of those venues, and the number of events allowed to take place.

This graph depicts the revenue of the music industry worldwide from 2002 to 2014, broken down by category. In 2014, revenue generated by digital music amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars.

Music industry revenues worldwide – additional information

The worldwide music industry revenue is often broken down by digital, physical, performance rights, and synchronization revenues. A forecast made in June 2016 of the compound annual growth rate of global music revenue between 2015 and 2020, by category, outlines which sectors of the industry are expected to perform well. It was predicted that digital music streaming revenue would grow by ***** percent annually. However, it was estimated that digital music downloading would decrease by ***** percent annually in the presented period and physical recorded music revenue is expected to experience a ** percent reduction annually.

Digital music’s expected dominance does not necessarily render traditional music formats defunct. Vinyl or LP records, which have been played since the *****, have had their worldwide sales recorded from 1997 to 2015. In 1997, vinyl records generated *** million U.S. dollars. However by 2006, their popularity appeared to have diminished as revenue dropped to a low of just ** million U.S. dollars. Surprisingly, the traditional format has undergone a revival as worldwide sales generated a record *** million U.S. dollars in 2015.

Data on recorded music industry revenue in the United States from 2009 to 2024 shows steady growth from 2015 onwards. The revenue reached over ** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up from the ***billion reported in the previous year. Music is the revenue driver of the audio market With music being part of everyday life as well as a popular form of entertainment, it has been the most popular audio format and is likely to remain the revenue driver of the industry. Global recorded music revenue alone generated a total of **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. In the United States, recorded music industry revenue amounted to **** billion U.S. dollars in 2024, which is more than twice as much compared to 2009. Streaming is dominating music consumption Over the years, streaming has become increasingly popular, overtaking other forms of music consumption. Especially physical sales of music have experienced a sharp drop in numbers, only slightly recovering in recent years. Nonetheless, while streaming is by far the most popular way of consumption, the boom it has experienced over the last 10 years or so seems to be slowing down. In 2022, global music streaming revenue only grew by **** percent, which is a significant drop from the growth rate of **** percent in the year before. In 2024, the recorded growth dropped to *******************.

In 2024, Warner Music Group reported revenues of over 2.87 billion U.S. dollars in the United States, 660 million of which was derived from music publishing. Here you can find WMG's quarterly revenue figures.

According to a study from 2021, the total digital music revenue has steadily increased over the years and will continue to do so, reaching over 29 billion U.S. dollars revenue in 2025. The study also showed that after the years of the COVID-19 pandemic during which the live music sector experienced a significant loss in revenue, live music is likely to recover and reach its former level post pandemic with an estimated revenue of over 30 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.

The timeline shows teh value of the music market worldwide in 2015 as well as a forecast thereof for 2020. The source projected the value would increase from 33.87 to 43.49 billion U.S. dollars in the presented period.

The statistic provides information on the music industry revenue in the United States from 2012 to 2015, as well as a forecast for 2016 to 2021. According to the source, the revenue will grow from ***** billion U.S. dollars in 2014 to ***** billion in 2021. In the first half of 2016, ** percent of the revenue in the music industry came from streaming and a further ** percent was derived from permanent downloads. Subscription and streaming digital music revenue in the United States was worth over **** billion U.S. dollars in 2016.

In 2020, the global music publishing revenue was mostly generated in North America. The second largest market was Europe, followed by Asia. The smallest market in terms of revenue was Africa and the Middle East.

According to the source, music produced by Sony record labels accounted for **** percent of the global recorded music market in 2024. However, Universal Music was on top with a market share of **** percent, while independent record companies reached **** percent.

This statistic shows the total revenue of classical recorded music worldwide in 2018, sorted by region. In 2018, the revenue of classical music amounted to ***** million U.S. dollars in North America and ***** million dollars in Europe.