Levelling the playing field for independent music companies and their artists across Europe
Stats
Music in numbers
IMPALA
IMPALA represents over 6000 independent music companies and national associations across 33 countries in Europe.
IMPALA Sales Awards represent over 150 million albums sold and €2 billion in revenue.
The independents
The music sector consists of thousands of independents and 3 multinationals – “the majors”.
99% of music businesses are micro, small or medium sized enterprises – “the independents”.
The independents are the innovators and early adopters, discovering new talent and producing 80% of all new releases. The independents also account for 80% of the sector’s jobs.
European music
Source: IFPI/ Oxford Economics
European cultural & creative sectors account for 4,4% of EU GDP and 7.6 million full-time jobs.
The European music sector specifically is supporting 2 million jobs, contributing €81.9 billion in gross value added to GDP, and exporting €9.7 billion worth of goods and services to countries outside the EU27 and UK.Europe generates nearly a third of total recorded music revenues worldwide and represents the second largest region in the world for recorded music revenues which grew by 8.3% in 2024.
Streaming revenue in Europe grew by 10.9% in 2023 to reach $5.1bn, representing 63.9% of the total European recorded music market. This is the first time that this format is crossing the $5bn mark in the region.
Paid subscription streaming represented the majority of that with $4,1bn. Europe has 146 million subscription account users, representing 21.9% of the global total.
Ad supported audio streaming reached $530m, exceeding $500m for the first time.
Ad-supported video streaming revenues reached $507.m, their highest level ever, also surpassing $500m for the first time
Performing rights revenues increased by 6.3% to a total of $1.5bn in 2023 – 18.8% of total European revenues. Europe continued to be a major player in performance rights revenues, accounting for over 54% of the world’s performance rights income in 2023.
In Europe, physical revenues grew by 6.6% to amount to $1.17bn, but far from the global growth rate of 13.4%. Vinyl however, continued to show double-digit growth with a 14.8% growth in 2023.
Synchronisation rights revenues slightly declined (-4.4%) to reach $129m in 2023.
Music industry
In 2024, global recorded music revenues totalled US$29.6 billion. An increase of 4.8% compared to 2023 ($28.6bn).
The music industry’s digital revenues (including streaming) now represent 71.8% of total revenues (2024).
Streaming continues to grow in popularity across the globe – exceeding $20.0bn for the first time.
Streaming revenues specifically grew by 7.3% (year-on-year) to represent 69.0% of the total market (2024) – $20.4bn.
Subscription streaming revenues accounted for over 50% of global recorded music revenues in 2024 and was the key driver of growth, with an increase of 9.5% ($15.3bn), whilst ad-supported streaming formats (combined) grew by a more modest 1.2% ($3.2bn).
Streaming aside however, digital revenues saw a drop of 2.6% in 2023, accounting for $908m. This was, however, the format’s smallest decline since 2013.
Synchronisation revenues increased by 6.4% and grew for a fourth successive year in 2024, accounting for $650m. Representing 2.2% of total revenues.
Performance rights revenues in 2024 grew by 5.9% to a total of $2.9bn, representing 9.7% of total revenues.
Global physical revenues amounted to $4.8bn and declined by 3.1% in 2024. This decline however was set against a very strong performance for the format in 2023, when revenues increased by 14.5%. CD and music video revenues fell by 6.1% and 15.5% respectively in 2024. Vinyl revenues grew by 4.6%, experiencing their 18th consecutive year of growth.
55 out of 58 markets recorded growth in 2024, which included eight of the top 10 global markets.
In 2023, record companies invested $7.1 bn in discovering and nurturing new artists ($3.9 bn in A&R/ $3.2 bn in marketing) while labels’ payments to artists having increased by 96%.