Latest news with #GlobalMusicReport2025
Observer
16-05-2025
- Business
- Observer
Composing, publishing music remains one of complex challenges
Composing, publishing and distributing music remains one of the most complex challenges facing cultural production globally — not only due to protecting musical works, but also in ensuring fair compensation for all contributors to the creative process. This includes composers, translators, publishers, distributors and supporting technical professionals, as well as the protection of a nation's artistic heritage, which is deeply tied to its cultural and civilisational identity. Modern technologies have played a transformative role in promoting and distributing musical content across various platforms. Music, in particular, has benefitted significantly — gaining exposure and generating increasing financial and economic returns. The global interest in music today is not solely cultural or social, but also profoundly economic. Within the growing knowledge economy, music is recognised as a dynamic industry, linked to production, consumption and shifting audience preferences. Thus, music contributes not only to cultural preservation but also to economic stability for musicians, composers and producers. According to the Global Music Report 2025 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), recorded music has steadily grown over the past decade. However, the past year saw slower growth, impacting related creative industries and delaying recovery. Still, the report remains optimistic, noting significant potential for further expansion through innovation, emerging technologies and investment in both talent and infrastructure in developing music markets. The report underscores the vital role of production companies in sustaining and advancing the music sector. These companies are essential partners in identifying and nurturing talent, generating new revenue streams and connecting artists with audiences. Their work facilitates the commercial and creative success of artists at various stages of their careers. Moreover, they provide the resources for artistic development, innovation and technological support, allowing artists to fully express themselves and engage with their audiences. As intellectual property rights become a central concern for music-producing countries and companies, the rise of artificial intelligence poses a dual challenge. On one hand, AI fosters creativity and enhances artistic experiences; on the other, some AI firms — according to the IFPI — "consume" protected works by using copyrighted music to train their models, threatening the ownership and uniqueness of musical content. This raises serious concerns about copyright violations. The IFPI warns of widespread issues involving unauthorised downloads, redistribution, remixing, or alteration of protected works, posing challenges to digital broadcasting integrity and online protection. These infringements ultimately affect the financial viability of the music sector and undermine equitable income distribution among artists. Music, while being a historical expression of civilisations and traditions, also represents an economic asset that has long supported the livelihoods of creators. From instrument makers to composers, sound engineers to producers, the music community fosters cultural taste and appreciation. Many governments now recognise music's role as a pillar of cultural development and are investing accordingly. In response to the growing threat of AI-related copyright breaches, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has dedicated World Intellectual Property Day 2025 to music, under the theme 'IP and Music: Sensing the Rhythm of Creativity.' This initiative affirms the rights of composers as central to the music industry and emphasises fair compensation for their intellectual contributions. Protecting music is not limited to standalone compositions or songs; it extends to all creative forms involving sound, including audiovisual works, video games, film scores and more. Ensuring these rights includes safeguarding those of publishers, broadcasters and distributors. Music is a core component of the audio-visual industries. Its protection demands coherent legal frameworks, effective policies and ethical practices that secure the rights of creators. This, in turn, fosters trust in the system, ensures financial fairness and provides a secure environment for artistic innovation. Oman, with its rich and diverse musical heritage, has actively worked to develop this sector through legislation and policy. It has implemented frameworks for intellectual property protection, encouraged musical institutions, supported creative talent and facilitated investment opportunities, particularly in traditional music groups across the governorates. However, the rapid advance of digital platforms and AI technologies poses new challenges. Music is increasingly vulnerable to exploitation and safeguarding it requires not only legal protection but also a shared ethical commitment. Upholding these rights is a collective responsibility — between institutions and individuals alike. Aisha al Darmaki is a researcher specialising in semiotics and a member of the State Council. The original version of this article was published in Arabic in the print edition of Oman newspaper on May 11, 2025. — Translated by Badr al Dhafari
Euronews
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Streaming revenues exceeded $20bn for the first time ever in 2024, says Global Music Report
ADVERTISEMENT 2024 was quite the year for women in music: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour became the highest grossing tour in history, Beyoncé became the most Grammy nominated artist ever (99) and the top 3 albums of the year globally were from Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. But what do the financials of the industry look like and what are the trends shaping the industry right now? In this episode of The Big Question, Hannah Brown is joined by Victoria Oakley, the CEO of the global body for record labels IFPI, to discuss their latest Global Music Report. How much is the music industry worth? The 'music industry' isn't just one single industry - it's made up of many different parts which in turn influence other industries like travel, hospitality, fashion - as demonstrated by the 2024 ' Swiftonomics ' phenomenon. 'So touring and live and concerts are huge, right? Then streaming - where you perhaps do an awful lot of your listening, there is publishing, there is songwriting , there is music for film, there's music for adverts, there is merchandising. There's this whole ecosystem of different ways in which artists both reach their fans and make money and can thrive as artists,' Victoria explained. According to IFPI's Global Music Report 2025, just one sector of it, global recorded music, grew 4.8% in 2024 and was valued at $29.6 billion (€27.1bn). Though the industry's growth may have slowed in recent years, it's still outperforming many others and significantly higher than the average global GDP growth in 2024 - 3.2% according to the OECD. Europe represented 29.5% of the global figure and grew at a rate of 8.3%, significantly higher than the US & Canada's +2.1%. That's despite the fact that the USA is the world's largest music market, followed by Japan, the UK and then Germany. The main revenue driver? Streaming . Related Beyond Barbie: The toy industry is no longer just for kids, says Mattel The Big Question: How will AI transform the travel industry? What is driving growth in the recording industry? Subscription streaming grew by 9.5% and the number of users across the globe rose 10.6% to 752 million people in 2024. In fact, streaming revenues exceeded $20bn for the first time ever in 2024 ($20.4bn / €18.6bn) and represented 69% of total recorded music revenues. To put that in perspective, $20bn is more than the entire recorded music industry revenues for each year between 2003 and 2020. While streaming is the main driver, it's not the only factor. Although CDs are still popular in Japan, overall physical formats decreased 3.1%. However, that's not the case for vinyl . Vinyl revenues continued to grow in 2024, up 4.6%, which was the 18th consecutive year of growth. ADVERTISEMENT 'In South Korea it's absolutely huge and actually in other parts of the world where they're listening to K-pop , they often buy it first on vinyl,' Victoria said. 'What you also have is a lot of superfans buying vinyl as a collector's item and they will buy multiple different versions. 'So you may have an artist who releases essentially the same record, but with different colours of vinyl, different artwork, different material, different words, different poetry on the insert and it's really important to fans who want to have that really strong personal connectivity with their artist.' Hannah Brown is joined by CEO of IFPI, Victoria Oakley on The Big Question Euronews Related Is the $10bn Spotify gave artists last year enough to silence its critics? What are the trends shaping the music industry right now? '15 to 20+ years ago, you had to sing in English to really make it to the top and so music from America, Britain, Canada did incredibly well in most places.' ADVERTISEMENT 'That is just not the case anymore, anywhere in the world,' Victoria stated. In fact, every European country predominantly listens to music in their own language and so the challenge now is increasing exports to other markets. 'Who'd have thought ten years ago that every teenager all over the world would be listening to K-pop? And so if South Korea can do it, there's no reason that nobody else can't.' 'It's a little bit trickier if your music is in a language that is spoken by very few people around the world but [...] it absolutely can be done,' Victoria added. ADVERTISEMENT The biggest market growths in 2024 were seen in Latin America (+22.5%), Middle East & North Africa (+22.8%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (+22.8%). 'I think one of the interesting stories in terms of Latin American music is how it's reaching the broader world, perhaps taking its rightful place on the global stage.' 'I also think there are a number of countries that are coming into their moment in the music industry in the coming years.' 'So quite what will happen in China and quite what will happen in India remain uncertain but those are huge markets with huge diversity and variety in both their offer of music and what they listen to. And so I think watching both of those markets over the coming years will be really interesting.' ADVERTISEMENT The Big Question is a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today's agenda. Watch the video above for the full conversation about the Global Music Report.
