The worldwide recorded music industry generated $21.5bn across all formats last year, growing 11.4%.
That’s according to new numbers from trusted analysis platform Midia Research, which estimates that $11.9bn of this $21.5bn – some 56% – came from streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube.
Interestingly, Midia has revised upwards its preliminary estimate for the ‘artist-direct’ sector, i.e. those DIY artists independently uploading their own music via platforms like Amuse, Ditto, TuneCore, CD Baby etc.
Midia’s new 2019 annual report suggests that these DIY artists generated $873m across the 12 months of last year, nabbing 4.1% market share of the global industry. That 4.1% figure was as low as 1.7% in 2015, says Midia.
The major record companies (Universal, Sony and Warner) claimed a 67.5% market share of recorded music revenues globally, says Midia’s Mark Mulligan – with Universal (on $6.4bn / 30%) taking the biggest portion.
That left independent entities (including indie labels, ‘label services’ artists and DIY artists) with 32.5% of the market.
If you’re wondering how we got to our headline above, Midia has shared with MBW that its estimate for the global recorded music industry’s revenues last year is $21.46bn.
That figure, divided by the 365 days of 2019, results in just under $59m ($58.8m) being generated by the industry every 24 hours. Obviously enough ($873m/365), some $2.4m of this money each day was generated by DIY artists.
Midia’s report points out: “Artists direct were the standout success of 2018, but added even more revenue in 2019 ($212m) than in 2018 ($183m).”
In fact, the entire industry grew faster in 2019 than it did in the prior year: Midia’s numbers suggest that the recorded music business, across all formats, grew by $2.2bn in 2019, slightly higher than the $1.8bn growth seen in 2018.
However, streaming growth, as long predicted, is slowing down: Midia suggests that those $11.9bn total industry streaming revenues grew less “in both percentage and absolute terms, adding $64m less revenue [than in 2018]”.
Midia’s numbers come ahead of the release of the record industry’s ‘official’ global numbers from trade body IFPI, which are expected towards the end of this month.
[Pictured: Arizona Zervas, who had one of the world’s biggest DIY streaming hits, Roxanne, before signing with Columbia Records last year.]Music Business Worldwide
