The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has released “Global Music Report 2022”, this year’s edition of its annual report detailing what happened in the music industry worldwide last year.
The report says that the worldwide music industry saw revenue grow for the seventh consecutive year, by 18.5% in 2021, totaling $25.9 billion. This is the highest amount of revenue this millennium.
Streaming revenue grew by 24.3%, and now makes up 65% of global revenue, at $16.9 billion. There was streaming revenue growth in every region of this world. This was driven by a 21.9% growth in paid subscription revenue. At the end of 2021, there were 523 million users of paid streaming services worldwide, accounting for 47.3% of global revenue. Ad-supported streaming services make up of the remaining 17.7% of global revenue that streaming accounts for.
After streaming, the next biggest source of revenue is physical, which now makes up 19.2% of global revenue, at $5 billion. This is up 16.1% compared to 2020, and marks the first growth in the physical market in 20 years. The reason for this increase was the return to physical retail which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. CD revenue grew for the first time this millennium, with particularly strong interest in Asia. Vinyl sales continued to grow, with 51.3% in 2021 compared to 2020’s 25.9% growth.
Physical is followed by performance rights, which makes up 9.4% of global revenue, at $2.4 billion, a increase of 4%. This increase comes amid the world’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
After performance rights is downloads and other digital, which now makes up 4.3% of global revenue. This segment brought in $1.1 billion last year, a 10.7% decline. This is the only channel to see a decline in revenue in 2021, as digital music consumption changes from an ownership model to an access one. Downloads fell by 15.3% to $839.3 million, making up 3.2% of global revenue. However, other digital grew by 6.8%
The last segment is synchronization. It makes up 2.1% of global revenue at $549.1 million. This segment grew by 22% compared to 2020, once again, as the world continues to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The top 10 music markets in order are the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and Italy. This is unchanged from 2020, with the exception of China and South Korea switching places and Italy returning to the top 10 in place of The Netherlands.
For the seventh consecutive year, Asia saw growth, with an increase of 16.1%. Part of the reason for this was the return to growth of the region’s largest market, Japan. After two years of declines, Japanese revenue grew by 9.3%. Excluding Japan’s growth, revenues in Asia were up by 24.6%. Revenue from Asia accounted for 23% of the global market. After a rebound in physical revenue during 2021, Asia was also responsible for 49.6% of global physical revenue.
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