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