IFPI Global Report 2025: Music Revenues Up 5% to $29.6 Billion Amid AI Copyright Concerns
Written by djfrosty on March 19, 2025
LONDON — Global music sales grew for the tenth consecutive year in 2024 but the risk of generative AI systems using copyright-protected music to freely train their systems poses “a very real and present threat” to the future of the industry, warn record executives.
Total recorded music revenues climbed to $29.6 billion in 2024, a rise of 4.8% on the previous year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Global Music Report 2025, published Wednesday (Mar. 19).
Driving the growth was a strong increase in paid streaming subscription revenue, which rose 9.5% to $15.2 billion, while total streaming revenues, comprising of paid subscription and advertising-supported tiers, rose 7.3% year-on-year to $20.4 billion, representing 69% of recorded music sales worldwide.
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Although last year’s growth rate is roughly half that of 2023 (when revenues rose by just over 10%) total music sales still reached the highest level since 1999 — when IFPI first started compiling global music revenues and sales totaled $22.2 billion — on an absolute dollar basis, not accounting for inflation. Piracy and declining physical sales saw the market bottom out at $13 billion in 2014.
The subsequent recovery and decade-long growth of the global record industry is now, however, being placed in jeopardy by tech companies who want to rollback copyright protections to enable them to use music works without a license for training AI systems, caution creators and executives. Earlier this week, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon were among 400 musicians, filmmakers, writers and actors who signed an open letter to the Trump administration opposing submissions from tech companies OpenAI, Anthropic and Google who want to use copyrighted works without permission from rights holders.
In the United Kingdom, the government is consulting on proposed changes to copyright law that, if implemented, would allow AI developers to freely use creators’ content for training purposes, unless rights holders “opt out.”
“We are asking policymakers to protect music and artistry,” said IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley in a statement accompanying the Global Music Report. “We must harness the potential of AI to support and amplify human creativity, not to replace it.”
“If those [tech companies] arguing for these exceptions get their way, they can… put the existing [digital music services] out of business while paying artists and songwriters nothing. That is an incredible market distortion,” said Dennis Kooker, president of global digital business at Sony Music Entertainment, at the report launch in London.
Breaking down 2024’s global music sales, users of paid music subscriptions grew to 752 million worldwide, says the London-based organization, a rise of over 10% on the previous year. Subscription streaming revenues now account for just over 50% of global music sales.
On the physical side of the business, an 18th consecutive year of vinyl sales growth (up 4.6%) was not enough to arrest a 3.1% slide in overall physical revenues, which fell to $4.8 billion. IFPI said the decrease was partially due to a fall in physical sales in Asia, which accounts for more than 45% of all physical revenues worldwide.
In terms of market share, physical accounted for just over 16% of the overall market last year, down from 18% in 2023.
Performance rights revenue climbed 5.9% to $2.9 billion, representing just under 10% of global revenues and marking the sector’s fourth successive year of growth. Sync income was flat with 2023 at $650 million, representing a 2.2% share of the market.
Taylor Swift was 2024’s biggest-selling global artist, ahead of Canadian rapper Drake and K-pop sensation SEVENTEEN, IFPI announced last month, marking the fifth time she that she has taken the global crown and third consecutive year. Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things was last year’s biggest-selling global single across all digital formats with 2.1 billion equivalent streams.
Mexico Breaks Into Global Top 10 Music Markets, Bumping Australia
In terms of world markets, IFPI said that music revenues were up in every region and all but three of the 58 markets it tracks, with the U.S. retaining its long-held No. 1 position with music sales growing 2.2% year-on-year. By comparison, the U.S. recorded music market grew by 7.2% in 2023 and 4.8% the year prior.
The world’s second largest music market, Japan, was flat year-on-year due to a decline in physical sales, reports IFPI. The third and fourth-biggest markets for recorded music remain the United Kingdom (+4.9%) and Germany (+4.1%), respectively. China, ranked No. 5 globally, grew music sales by 9.6%. (IFPI’s free-to-access report does not provide market-by-market revenue breakdowns).
The rest of the top 10 is made up of France (+7.5%), South Korea (-5.7%), Canada (+1.5%), Brazil (+21.7%, the fastest growing top 10 market) and Mexico, which increased revenues by 15.6% to overtake Australia as the tenth largest global recorded music market.
Those cross-market gains are mirrored on a regional basis with revenues from the U.S. and Canada region up 2.1% and together representing the greatest share of global music sales at just over 40%.
Latin America — where streaming makes up almost 88% of the recorded music market — saw growth of 22.5%, once again far outpacing the global growth rate and marking the region’s 15th consecutive year of revenue growth.
Europe remains the second-biggest region for music sales, accounting for more than a quarter (29.5%) of global revenues and growing 8.3% year-on-year. In third place is Asia, where overall revenues rose by just 1.3% compared to almost 15% in 2023 due to a 4.9% fall in physical sales.
The two fastest growing regions globally were Middle East and North Africa, where streaming holds a 99.5% share of the market and which saw music sales grow 22.8%, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which recorded a 22.6% rise in revenues to surpass $100 million for the first time.
South Africa remains the largest market in the Sub-Saharan Africa region, accounting for 75% of its revenues, following growth of 14.4%. Revenues in Australasia climbed 6.4% to $629 million with Australia and New Zealand increasing sales by 6.1% and 7.8% respectively.
(IFPI uses current exchange rates when compiling its Global Music Report, restating all historic local currency values on an annual basis. Market values therefore vary retrospectively as a result of foreign currency movements, says IFPI, which represents more than 8,000 record company members worldwide, including all three major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group.)