Global music revenues hit $21.5 Bn in 2019 with a fifth successive year of growth according to media and technology analysts, MIDiA Research, in a recent blog posting. Global revenues grew by 11.4% in 2019 to reach $21.5 Bn, an increase of $2.2 Bn on 2018. Growth accelerated year on year and this was achieved even though streaming revenue growth slowed.
Key trends in 2019
Independent artists make the biggest gains
The major record labels retained the lion’s share of the overall market in 2019, accounting for 67.5% of the total – down half a point from 68.0% in 2018. The remaining 32.5% accounted for by independent labels and artists combined was up 0.5 points from 2017 and 4.6 points from 2015. Artists direct – i.e. artists without record labels – was again the fastest growing segment of the market, growing by 32.1% in 2019 to reach $873 million, representing 4.1% of the total market, up from 1.7% in 2015.
Big year for Universal
Universal Music Group was the big winner among the majors, growing both faster than the other two majors and the total market to reach 30% market share. Universal also added more revenue in 2019 ($729 million) than Warner Music and Sony Music combined ($650 million).
Race for second place heats up
In 2015 Warner Music’s recorded music revenue was just 67% of Sony Music’s, and at the end of 2019 that share had increased to 93%. Just $279 million separated Warner and Sony at the end of 2019. Based on 2019 growth rates, Warner would be level with Sony by the end of 2022.
Streaming is key source of growth
Streaming was up 24% year-on-year to reach $11.9 Bn, representing 56% of all label revenues. But growth is slowing; streaming revenue grew by $2.3 Bn, which was $64 million less than in 2018. Downloads and physical music continued to decline but not as fast as in previous years with a fall of $0.4 Bn less than in 2018.
