European music in numbers

IMPALA

• IMPALA represents over 5000 independent music companies and national associations across 30 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.
• The collective market share of the independents is nearly 40%. Majors dominate the top 100 charts, as they account for over 95% of market share for the top hits across all genres.
• In 2018, record companies invested $4.1 bn in discovering and nurturing new artists (A&R).
• The European music sector accounts for over 1 million jobs and € 25 bn in turnover.
• Europe’s share of the global recorded music market was 30.8% in 2019.
• Digital now accounts for 63.3% of the industry’s global revenues.
• Streaming revenue in Europe grew by 24.15% in 2019, to $3.1 bn, representing 50.9% of the total European recorded music market.
• In Europe, subscription audio streams grew by 22.4% in 2019.
• Europe accounted for 50% of the world’s performance rights income in 2019.
• In 2018, 81% of Merlin’s members – the global digital rights agency for independents – saw their overall business grow, with 30% stating that business was up by more than 50%.
• 54% of Merlin’s members surveyed in 2019 reported that digital income accounted for more than 75% of their overall business revenues.
•  In 2017, 31% of the independent labels’ revenue came from foreign markets, and 77% of artists signed to independent labels chose to renew their contract.

European music

• European cultural & creative sectors account for 4,4% of EU GDP and 12 million full-time jobs.
• Europe generates over one third of global recorded music revenues.
• European recorded music revenues totalled $6.02 billion in 2018. Streaming revenues grew to $2.67 billion (representing 29,9% of total streaming revenues worldwide).
• In Europe, paid subscription for audio stream represent 78,9% of streaming revenues (rest: 9,9% for ad-supported audio and 11,2% for video stream).
• Performance rights grew to $1.4 billion in 2018, representing 51,9% of total performance rights revenues worldwide.
• Copyright-intensive sectors account for 9.9 million EU jobs.
• Copyright-intensive industries make a positive contribution to the EU’s trade balance: net export of €15bn.

Music industry

• In 2018, global recorded music revenues totalled $19.1 billion. An increase of 9.7% compared to 2017.
• The music industry’s digital revenues (including streaming) grew by 20,4% in 2018, to $11,2bn (2018).
• Digital music revenues now account for 58.9% of total industry revenues, compared to 25% for physical sales (2018). 
• Revenues from streaming grew to $8.9 billion in 2018 – a growth of 34% compared to 2017 – to become the industry’s primary digital revenue stream (2018).
• Number of paying subscribers rose to 255 million in 2018 (176 million in 2017).
• Revenues from video stream increased by 20% but remains the smallest increase across all revenue sources (2018).
• Physical sales faced a decline of -10.1% but vinyl sales kept on increasing (+6%) (2018).
• 50% of top tracks played on radio and downloaded in Europe are American.
• Record companies invested $4.5 bn in research and development and marketing in 2015, representing 27% of these companies’ revenues.
• As a whole, the music industry invested 16.9% of its revenue in research and development for new artists in 2015. It is higher than other research-intensive industries (e.g. pharmaceuticals and biotechnology 14.4%, software and computer services 10.1%, aerospace and defence 4.5%, etc.).
• IPR‐intensive industries pay significantly higher wages than other industries, with a wage premium of more than 40%, with copyright-intensive sectors having the highest premium (69%).

Digital services and social media

• There are more than 230 digital music services available across the EU, providing access to more than 40 million tracks.
• 6 of the top 10 most liked people on Facebook are music artists (updated: June 2016).
• 7 of the top 10 most followed people on Twitter are music artists (updated: June 2016).
• 9 of the top 10 most watched videos of all time on YouTube are music videos. Out of the top 20, 18 are music videos (updated: June 2016).

The value gap