The global music copyright market climbed to a record $47.2 billion in 2024, according to new figures published by the International Music Publishers Forum (IMPF GLOBAL MARKET VIEW) and analysis from music economist Will Page. While the total marks a historic high, year-on-year growth slowed to 5.2 percent, or roughly $2.3 billion, reflecting a normalization after the extraordinary gains seen during the pandemic years. Page, former Chief Economist at Spotify and PRS for Music, points to the gradual unwinding of COVID-era consumption patterns as a key factor behind the deceleration.
In 2024, most of the money generated by music rights came from recorded music. Indeed, record labels earned about $29 billion, representing roughly 60% of total global music copyright revenues. The remaining 40% came from the songs themselves, meaning the work of songwriters and publishers. Around $13.6 billion was collected through royalty management organizations worldwide, while another $4.6 billion came from direct licensing deals. Put simply, about 40% of the global value of music copyrights last year was tied to songwriting rather than recordings.
Decade-Long Growth Fueled by Streaming and Local Markets
This decade-long expansion has been fueled by streaming and more efficient monetization, with publishing revenues growing faster than recorded music as direct licensing models, where publishers license rights directly to platforms without intermediaries, capture an increasing share of long-term value.
This outsized growth in publishing revenue supports the long-standing argument by music publishers for more direct licensing of rights (as championed by the International Confederation of Music Publishers), since publishers are capturing a growing share of the industry’s expansion.
A notable trend highlighted in Page’s analysis is “glocalisation,” where domestic markets are now retaining more of the music revenue they generate. In markets like Denmark, South Korea, and Brazil, local artists increasingly dominate the charts, meaning a greater portion of music income stays in the home country instead of flowing back to international rights-holders. For example, in Denmark 16 of the top 20 albums in 2024 were by Danish artists performing in Danish, illustrating how streaming platforms have enabled strong local music ecosystems.
Likewise, Brazil’s massive streaming audience has propelled Portuguese-language acts onto global charts purely through domestic consumption. This shift toward local repertoire success, unachievable in the old broadcast era, indicates that streaming has reshaped the industry’s geography of revenue, allowing national markets to thrive on their own terms.
Outlook: AI Risks and Uncounted Revenue
Looking ahead, the music industry faces new opportunities and risks even as it celebrates record revenues. Page cautions that artificial intelligence (AI) could have an “asymmetric” impact on future music copyright earnings.
On one hand, AI-driven services (like automated music creation tools or personalized soundtracks) might open up new revenue streams on the consumer side.
On the other hand, AI could erode value in business-to-business areas, for instance, if generative music replaces licensed production music in films, TV, or advertising, it may cannibalize the income of composers and libraries. In effect, some parts of the music sector could gain while others lose, even if the top-line number continues to grow.
Page’s analysis suggests that AI may simultaneously create and destroy value across different segments of the market, a dynamic investors will be watching closely. Moreover, in many cases, synchronisation licensing tends to rely on back-catalogue songs that already carry a well-established cultural footprint.
It is also worth noting that $47.2 billion figure likely understates the true global market, due to gaps in measurement.China offers a clear example: now the world’s fifth largest recorded music market, with roughly $1.6 billion in annual revenues, the country also generates tens of millions of dollars in songwriting royalties that are not fully captured in global totals. As Page notes, when music consumption is truly global, measurement needs to be as well. A more comprehensive accounting would almost certainly push the overall value higher. Significant music revenues in certain regions are not fully captured in the industry’s official reports.
Streaming penetration remains limited across many emerging markets, pointing to significant growth potential as access to smartphones, payment infrastructure and localised offerings continues to improve. Beyond streaming, the diversification of music usage across audiovisual content, short-form formats, video games and digital environments is steadily expanding revenue sources. Improvements in rights tracking, allocation and transparency are also enabling the capture of income that has historically been underreported, particularly in certain territories and professional segments. Finally, the depth of music catalogues, combined with their global circulation, strengthens the long-term economic resilience of works, signalling not a slowdown but a gradual reconfiguration of the music industry’s growth drivers.
Taken together, the past decade confirms music copyright as a structurally growing asset class, supported by streaming scale, improving monetization and a more balanced split between recorded and publishing revenues.
As the market matures, value is increasingly shaped by data quality, rights structuring and direct access to income streams across territories. For platforms operating at the intersection of culture and finance, better measurement, clearer ownership and more efficient licensing models represent the next layer of upside, suggesting that the $47.2 billion milestone may be less of a ceiling than a new baseline for long-term growth.
