Support IPWatchdog with an individual sponsorship: Click here
“[G]lobal music revenues in 2023 were 38% higher than the $33.2 billion in worldwide box office receipts from the same year.”
On November 25, economist Will Page, formerly Chief Economist of streaming music company Spotify, published a report on the global value of music copyright, finding that worldwide music copyright revenues had increased 11% to reach $45.5 billion USD during 2023. Purporting to fill gaps in reporting from other global music copyright surveys, Page’s recent report indicates that the total value of music copyright holdings, including mechanical reproduction and live performance rights, has quickly surpassed the global value of cinema copyright thanks to lingering impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Collecting financial data from several music industry sources including IFPI, CISAC and the National Music Publishers Association, Page’s report aims to more accurately reflect the diverse scope of revenue streams created by copyright in the music industry. The total value of the music copyright market reported by Page far outstrips the $28.6 billion USD in global recorded music revenues reported by IFPI’s Global Music Report published this past March. Page notes that IFPI and others producing industry reports survey a limited number of countries and create regional groupings that overgeneralize the listening public.
North America Contributes Nearly Half of Music Copyright’s Global Value
The total revenues reported by Page include $28.5 billion in recorded revenues, $12.9 billion in collections by collective management organizations (CMOs) and $4.2 billion in direct publisher income. The increase in 2023’s total revenues, from $41 billion in 2022, maintains the same revenue share between artists and labels (63%) and songwriters, publishers and CMOs (37%).
Although global box office revenues in the film industry were 33% greater than the global music copyright market in 2019, global music revenues in 2023 were 38% higher than the $33.2 billion in worldwide box office receipts from the same year. As Page notes, the film industry has suffered attendance problems from the COVID-19 pandemic and while industry revenues improved by 22% over 2022’s totals, there is still an $8.6 billion gap between today’s numbers and cinema’s peak revenues in 2019.
The stronger value of music copyright relative to cinema is underscored by its more conservative methodology, which represents music’s value to creators, whereas box office receipts estimate gross consumer expenditures. When looking at distributor share of cinema revenues, which more closely approximates revenues to film creators, only $16.6 billion of cinema’s 2023 revenues were attributable to those holding copyrights to film.
Page’s report on music copyright revenues also reveals regional disparities in the volume and value of streaming music when looking at geographic data. While North America and Europe combined to contribute 80% of streaming music’s value during 2023, North America contributing the lion’s share at 48%, those two regions only accounted for 48% of total streaming volume over the same year. By contrast, Latin America (28%) and Asia (18%) accounted for almost half of all streaming music volume but only contributed a total of 12% in value to the streaming music sector last year.
‘Glocalisation’, Diaspora Populations Contributing to Cross-Border Trade Flows
A significant portion of Page’s music copyright report focuses on impacts to the industry caused by “glocalisation,” the phenomenon of local market success translating to a significant degree of global exposure. One-third of all music streamed in North America was recorded by artists living in other continents, which has a dramatic impact on revenues earned by countries where those artists reside. For example, music exports from Colombia to the United States totalled $78 million in 2023, $4 million greater than the entire value of Colombia’s domestic music recording industry.
While exports to the United States tended to dramatically increase revenues to other countries, the U.S. itself was one of only four countries that were net-exporters of music last year, the others comprising Sweden, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. Other than South Korea, which saw an equal amount of trade between music imports and exports, the other three nations collected more money in exports than they spent in imports during 2023. However, those nations have seen shrinking export value ratios in recent years, indicating reduced cross-border trade.
Each of the four net-exporting nations also saw a positive balance of YouTube channel subscribers for domestic artists. The massive popularity of South Korea’s K-Pop market was underscored by that country’s whopping 16.7 foreign followers for domestic artists for each South Korean resident following a foreign artist. Page’s YouTube numbers exclude subscribers to label channels, but the report notes a massive 278 million channel subscribers for India’s T-Series label.
Diaspora populations are contributing to cross-border flows of trade in the music industry, according to Page’s report. Looking specifically at Canadian artists performing in Punjabi, Page notes that several rank more highly in the Indian streaming market than they do domestically. Some of these artists have seen their music licensed for Bollywood movies, highlighting the economic value added to the music industry through immigration.
Image Source: Deposit Photos
Author: dvargg
Image ID: 69088459
