The global recorded music business grew by 7.4 percent last year, an industry body said Tuesday, as streaming continued to drive a fast-paced recovery from the doldrums of the piracy era.
The return
of vinyl continued unabated with sales up 23.5 percent on the year before,
while CDs continued their steady decline, down 11.9 percent, according to the
annual report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry
(IFPI).
But it is
streaming — up 19.9 percent — that has propelled the industry back to growth in
the last decade, with overall revenues now at $21.6 billion, close to their
level at the turn of the century before the internet began to devastate
incomes.
Streaming
platforms, led by Spotify, Apple and Deezer, now account for 62.1 percent of
global music revenues, the report said, with some 443 million paying
subscribers.
South Korean
phenomemon BTS topped the overall best-sellers list, followed closely by Taylor
Swift, Drake, The Weeknd and Billie Eilish.
Two songs
broke through the two billion stream mark: The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights”
(2.72bn) and Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” (2.34bn), while BTS dominated the
album charts in both streaming and physical formats with “Map of the Soul: 7”.
IFPI said a
major trend was the growth of global connections, despite pandemic-related
travel restrictions.
“K-Pop
continues to make great strides, of course, but I would argue the most exciting
development this year has been how African music and African artists have been
embraced by fans worldwide,” said Simon Robson of Warner Music in the report.
The African
region was included for the first time, with growth of 8.4 percent, led by
artists such as Burna Boy from Nigeria who picked up a Grammy for best global
music album this month.
“What’s
incredibly exciting is we now see artists from anywhere in the world have the
ability to break into any other market in the world,” Dennis Kooker of Sony
Music told a press conference for the report.
“There are
no barriers to entry, no barriers to consumers who want to engage with an
artist. It’s as exciting now creatively as I’ve ever seen.”
‘Misconception’
For all the
good news, there have been mounting protests over the streaming economy, with
many artists saying it benefits only the biggest stars and leaves little for
mid-size and niche musicians.
Frances
Moore, IFPI’s chief executive, dismissed claims that there were problems with
the industry.
“The
research that we did shows that artists’ revenues are higher than the revenues
coming back to the industry after costs, etc. So from that point of view,
there’s a misconception that artists are not doing well,” she told reporters.
She said the
misconception was likely due to level of competition in a world where seven
million artists are featured on Spotify, uploading 60,000 tracks per day.
“The role of
the record company… is about being a partner of the artist,” added Konrad von
Lohneysen, of German label Embassy of Music.
“We’re very
confident our role will remain as it is and that artists will realise what they
have with a label… in letting them to do what they want to do — make art.”
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