Recorded music market 2022 Reality bites

Following a spectacular year of growth in 2021, global recorded music revenue growth slowed significantly in 2022, due to the combined impact of global economic headwinds and growth slowdown in mature streaming markets. Context, though, is everything – not many industries can deliver solid growth while the global economy is in turmoil, ad markets are falling, and many emerging tech sectors are in crisis.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: AWAL, CD Baby, Concord, Copyright Royalty Board, DistroKid, Kobalt, Meta, NetEase Cloud Music, Reservoir Media, Snap, Sony Music Group, The Orchard, TikTok, TuneCore, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, YouTube

Methodological notes:

1. All revenue values referenced in this report are in USD, with all conversions from local currencies calculated taking the average quarterly exchange rate for each quarter of the year. No constant currency values are used in this report
2. Independent revenue is measured on a distribution basis, not an ownership basis. Therefore, independent revenue that is distributed via a major record label or a wholly owned major label distributor will appear in the revenue of the respective major record label
3. For the first time, in this year’s report, MIDiA has included merchandise and expanded rights revenue of all major labels (UMG’s had not previously been included)