From vinyl to CDs and digital downloads to digital streaming, the recorded music industry has seen significant shifts in the last 20 years. Here are some 20 statistics about the music industry that will help you better understand where we are and where we are headed!
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Thursday, February 16th,
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The U.S.’s recorded music industry earned $15.0 billion in revenue in 2021.
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Music streaming accounts for 65% of the global recorded music industry’s revenue.
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82.1 million Americans have paid streaming subscriptions.
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From 2021 to 2026, the global music industry is expected to see a CAGR of 8.5%.
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Only 9% of all music is sold as physical albums in 2022.
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The annual revenue of the global recorded music industry is $25.9 billion as of 2021.
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The U.S. is the top music market in 2021, followed by Japan, the U.K., and Germany.
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Universal Music Group is the world’s largest record company, earning 32.1% of the global streaming and physical music industry’s revenue in 2020.
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Independent record labels accounted for 31.4% of the world’s streaming and physical music sales revenue in 2020.
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Sony Music Entertainment earned 20.6% of the global revenue earned from streaming and physical music sales in 2020.
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15.9% of the revenue earned by the world’s physical and streaming music sales in 2020 went to Warner Music Group.
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65% of the global recorded music industry’s revenue comes from streaming.
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As of 2017, about 35% of internet users access music via copyright-infringing methods.
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Spotify holds 31% of the total subscribers of the music streaming market, the largest portion of any streaming service.
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R&B and hip hop accounted for 30.7% of all on-demand audio streams in the U.S. in 2020.
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Independent artists earned $1.2 billion in revenue in 2020.
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Napster pays the most per stream of any streaming service at $0.019 per play.
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Breaking an artist into a major recorded music market can cost between $500,000 and $2 million.
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In 2020, only 2% of music producers in the U.S. were female, while 98% were male.
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The U.S. recorded music industry grew by 22.6% in 2021.
(2022, December 19). Music Industry Statistics. Zippia. Retrieved February 16, 2023, from https://www.zippia.com/advice/music-industry-statistics/
