Streaming
GOIĂNIA, Brazil â As the global pandemic deepened, Brazilian country artist Alex Ronaldo watched his career ebb away. So the veteran music writer cooked up a side hustle: He took hundreds of demos he regularly received from aspiring artists â mostly in the sertanejo, or Brazilian country, genre â and put them out on Spotify under false names and fake artists, with fake cover art, all created from his luxury seafront condo.
In December, three years after he launched his illegal money-making scheme, prosecutors arrested and charged Ronaldo Torres de Souza, who performs under the moniker Alex Ronaldo, in the first prosecution of an individual in Brazil for streaming fraud. The sertanejo artist confessed to uploading more than 400 tracks by other artists under false names to Spotify that generated more than 28 million fake plays â using artificial intelligence to aid in the scheme.
The major labels, via Brazilâs recorded music association Pro-MĂşsica Brasil, along with Brazilâs anti-piracy body Association for the Protection of Phonographic Intellectual Rights (APDIF), cooperated on what they are calling Operation Out of Tune. âSimply put, streaming manipulation of this nature is theft â stealing directly from artists and betraying fans,â Victoria Oakley, the CEO of IFPI in London, said in a statement last week.
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As seemingly important as his arrest was, in Goiânia â the âNashville of Brazilâ â the case underscored to music executives how little was being done to tackle a more serious problem plaguing the Brazilian industry: the buying of fake streams by artists, managers and music label executives to prop up artists on Spotifyâs charts.
Brazilian music executives said a furious scramble for Spotify chart dominance is spurring artists to spend tens of thousands of dollars on fake plays for individual songs â and Spotify is doing little that they can see to stop it.Â
âEverything is bought and paid for here,â GlĂĄucio Toledo, a sertanejo music manager, said about music streaming success in Brazil. âI know three people who got rich selling fake playlists. It has become an unfair competition in the digital world.â
Other industry observers are hearing similar concerns. âBrazil is on a lot of peopleâs minds across the industry, big and small,â says Morgan Hayduk, the co-CEO and co-founder of Beatdapp, a Vancouver-based company that specializes in streaming fraud detection. âWhen we talk to rights holders or to platforms there are questions about what they see in their Brazil data.â
One top music manager told Billboard that so-called stream brokers peddle 1 million streams for 50,000 reais ($8,750). That level of spending outpaces the average of around $4,000 that Spotify pays out for a million streams, this person said. The typical fraud scheme involves accessing fake-stream farms in Brazil or outside the country that use dozens if not hundreds of laptops and cell phones to run Spotify accounts continuously.Â
Spotify says it âinvests heavily in automated and manual reviewsâ to prevent, detect and mitigate artificial streams on its platform. âWhen we identify stream manipulation, we take action that includes removing streaming numbers and withholding royalties,â a Spotify spokesperson said. âBad actors are always evolving, so our dedicated fraud prevention team is always working to identify new trends and methods used to game the system.â
Nevertheless, competition to out-buy other sertanejo artists âis hindering other genres, such as funk, pop, MPB and electronic music, which sometimes struggle to make it into the top 10 or 15 because [the lists] are inflated,â says Raphael Ribeiro, CEO of AudioMix Digital, the Goiânia-based label and artist management company that launched several big sertanejo artists, including Gusttavo Lima, Jorge & Mateus and Wesley SafadĂŁo.
Fraud is also limiting the barriers to entry for less wealthy artists in Brazil. âNowadays, itâs hard for an artist to break through if you donât get involved in a scheme, if you donât pay for streams, if you donât create a bot, because thereâs a lot of money involved,â Ribeiro says.
Heavy stream-buying could at least partly explain sertanejoâs dominance in Brazil over the past several years. Seven of the top 10 most-played tracks on streaming platforms last year were sertanejo, according to Pro-MĂşsica, with Felipe & Rodrigoâs live version of âGosta de Ruaâ grabbing the top spot.Â
In Brazil, streaming success on Spotify strongly impacts touring and sponsorship fees for artists. Top concert earners include Jorge & Mateus and Lima, the latter of whom is so popular that until two weeks ago he was publicly weighing a run for president of the country next year. (He said he would focus instead on conquering the Spanish-language Latino music market.) Reaching the top 50 on Spotify typically boosts an artistâs touring fee to at least 300,000 reais (about $52,000), two Brazilian music managers said.
Brazilâs overall recorded music market is among the fastest growing in the world. Last year it grew 21.7% to 3.49 billion reais ($609 million) to land in ninth place on IFPIâs global ranking (88% of revenues came from on-demand streams), despite the countryâs currency remaining historically weak compared to the U.S. dollar. Thatâs up more than double from the $296.2 million and 12th place it held in 2020, according to IFPIâs annual Global Music Report.
Allegations of an underground market in Brazil for buying and selling fake streams to prop up artists first began to spread during the pandemic, when a senior manager at a streaming platform and one executive at a major label â both based in Brazil then â told Billboard that stream-buying by big-name artists was prevalent, especially in sertanejo â and that indie and major labels were involved.
Fraudsters have had a head start on Brazilian investigators. The public prosecutorâs office in the state of Goias, where Goiânia is located, only organized a cybercrime unit last year. And prosecutors acknowledged that the Torres de Souza probe, which involved authorities in two other states, piggy-backed on reporting by Brazilian news site UOL â largely because none of the more than 50 composers who were victimized reached out to authorities first, they said.
Still, Brazil has done more than most countries.
Previous law enforcement efforts have focused on shutting down websites peddling fake streams and stream-ripping services, rather than on rooting out individual fraudsters. Pro-MĂşsica president Paulo Rosa told Billboard in 2022 that most of the illicit activity affecting Brazil was being conducted outside the country by mirror sites in Russia. Last year, Operation 404, a global anti-piracy effort, dismantled the top three most popular stream-ripping mobile apps in Brazil, while another initiative, Operation Redirect, targeted illegal music sites in Brazil associated with malware distribution.
âThere have been very few streaming cases channeled through proper authorities anywhere around the world,â Hayduk says. âTo see three in Brazil is still a meaningful number.â
Homegrown Streaming Fraud
That said, Torres de Souzaâs case showed that a relatively uncomplicated streaming fraud operation can go undetected for years. At his apartment in Recife, in the northeast of the country, the artist, who has 13,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, used fake documents and emails to register other artistsâ demos with distributors. Then he published the songs on Spotify and social media platforms under fake names and fake artists, using AI-generated fake cover art.
The heart of the scheme involved setting up 21 computers that ran the open-source program Sandboxie on various internet browsers, which could generate up to 16 virtual computers on each machine. That meant he could have up to 2,000 browser windows open simultaneously pumping out mostly Spotify streams for the music he illicitly appropriated, prosecutors described in their 90-page complaint.
Investigators found a wall of laptops generating millions of illicit Spotify streams at the condo of Ronaldo Torres de Souza in Recife, Brazil.
Courtesy of the Public Prosecutorâs Office of the state of GoiĂĄs, Brazil
Investigators seized computers and hard drives containing thousands of demos and hundreds of pieces of cover art. Torres de Souza ran the computers 24 hours a day, only disconnecting them when he traveled to avoid starting a fire, FabrĂcio Lamas, a prosecutor with Goiâniaâs cybercrime unit, CyberGaeco, tells Billboard.
In the first year or so, the sertanejo artist relied on demos from aspiring artists to generate his illicit income. Then in the past year, he turned to fast-evolving AI programs to also create fake music, prosecutors said.
By all accounts, Torres de Souza, 47, was acting alone in the scheme. His wife of more than a decade was oblivious to what he was doing with a wall full of laptops running Spotify accounts all day long, according to prosecutors.
The scheme wasnât always that sophisticated. The sertanejo artist ascribed fake male artist names to some songs that had female singers. And some AI-created cover art didnât even refer to actual songs. Fake artist âRegis Costa,â for example, had cover art for âTaça de Vinhoâ (Wine Glass) â with an image of a martini glass instead of a wine glass â but there was no such song on the album.
Prosecutors estimated Torres de Souza generated more than 300,000 reais ($52,000) in illicit royalties from the first 400 or so songs identified. They expect that number to grow significantly when they gain access to his bank account in a few months, as proscribed under Brazilian banking law.
Torres de Souza ââfaces a potential prison sentence of more than 10 years for the fraud scheme, Lamas said. Prosecutors and his attorney JosĂŠ Paulo Schneider said the music artist cooperated fully in their probe and expressed remorse for his actions. He was released from jail and is awaiting trial.
âThis operation, when they got to Alex Ronaldo, was just the tip of the iceberg, but [investigators] didnât look at the bigger picture,â Schneider says. âThere are many artists who use this kind of non-organic reproduction to be able to make their songs go viral â in short, to monetize them.â
Blame Game
The length of Torres de Souzaâs potential sentence could come down to who claims they were a victim, which is not so clear, Lamas says.
âThere is a lot of confusion,â the prosecutor says. âThe composersâ associations, the record companiesâ associations and the streaming companies say, âWe are not victims.â But who is paying? The streaming companies, who say, âWe donât pay them, we pay the distributorâ? Itâs kind of a blame game.â
Goiânia prosecutors criticized Spotify, saying the company chose not to collaborate. âIn this specific case, there was no delivery of platform information,â says prosecutor Gabriella de Queiroz Clementino. âSpotify stated that it had no interest in the criminal investigation.â
A Spotify spokesperson denied that charge. The platform âcooperated fully with the authorities to provide all requested information and certainly did provide an explanation about its processes to detect and mitigate artificial streams,â the spokesperson said, noting that Spotify âcontinues to be collaborative during this investigation.â
Lamas says prosecutors âare aware of other situationsâ involving steaming manipulation but would not provide further detail. âFor us to effectively combat this, the state needs better collaboration from the companies that receive this data,â he adds.
For music industry officials who see stream-buying happening in Brazilian country music with impunity, new fraud probes couldnât come soon enough.
âTo me, the greatest harm from this [fraudulent stream] activity is that it generates a lack of credibility in the market,â says Marcelo Castello Branco, president of the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). âThere will come a time when even the consumer will not believe these numbers.âÂ
Alexei Barrionuevo is Billboardâs former International Editor.
At Universal Inside, held Wednesday (March 26) at the Tempodrom in Berlin, UMG Central Europe chairman/CEO Frank Briegmann showcased some of the labelâs acts, updated attendees on the state of the German music market and offered a glimpse into the companyâs future.
After an appearance by the pop act Blumengarten, Briegmann shared some good news about the German business. As streaming growth slows in other regions, Germany still has plenty of headroom, which is why the market grew 7.8% in 2024, surpassing the 2 billion euro mark for the first time. He also made the point that this was good news for artists, who one study showed increased their collective revenue faster than labels between 2010 and 2022.
Briegmann also laid out a plan for growth that relies on UMGâs âartist-centric modelâ to increase payments to acts that meet certain criteria, as well as the âstreaming 2.0â idea that is intended to induce superfans into paying more for subscriptions. The label had an impressive 2024, accounting for five of the yearâs top 10 albums, including Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish releases in the top two spots. Briegmann also pointed to the success of UMGâs classical label Deutsche Grammophon, where he is also chairman/CEO, as a particular highlight.
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Much of the potential for growth lies in superfans, Briegmann said, and pointed to the history of UMGâs efforts to identify, track and reach them directly. The latest iteration of that is a new in-house direct-to-consumer operation, SPARKD, which will offer artists a new service to reach consumers with both albums and merchandise sold by UMGâs Bravado, which will be integrated into the label business in Germany. Bravado will continue to do business with both UMG artists and others. The idea is to use existing data to drive more different kinds of business â which would, in turn, generate more data. Already, Briegmann said, Bravado had grown its German merchandise revenue by 50% in the last three years, thanks in large part to its direct-to-consumer business.
Universal Inside is never all business, and as usual, Briegmann introduced some of the labelâs artists. He briefly interviewed German pop star Sarah Connor, who spent much of her career singing in English but will soon release the final album of a German-language album trilogy, Freigeistin. Deutsche Grammophon president Clemens Trautmann introduced the labelâs star pianist Vikingur Ălafsson, and Gigi Perez played two songs on acoustic guitar.
The event closed with a brief speech from Berlin Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion Joe Chialo about the significance of the Electrola label, after which the German act Roy Bianco & Die Abbrunzati Boys played a few songs, joined for the classic âTi Amoâ by the schlager icon Howard Carpendale.
With the recent news of slowing streaming growth in the U.S. and declining global revenue growth in recorded music, one might think the trends could have a negative impact on the market for publishing and recorded music catalogs.
Think again. For a handful of reasons, industry insiders who spoke to Billboard donât believe the slowdown will have much â if any â effect on the continually brisk business in music intellectual property rights. Subscription revenue, which accounted for roughly 66% of U.S. revenue and approximately 51% of global revenue in 2024, according to the RIAA and IFPI, respectively, will continue to grow in mature markets and elsewhere.
âI donât think the numbers that weâve seen are enough to make any [music investors] worry too much,â says MIDiA Researchâs Mark Mulligan. âI know that a lot of these funds have seen our numbers, and our numbers are relatively cautious about the outlook. Weâre not bearish, but weâre not bullish either.â
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Numerous people pointed to Goldman Sachsâ estimates â a closely watched music forecast that remains something of a gold standard in the business â that both global recorded music and publishing revenue will grow at approximately 8% annually through 2030. Whatâs more, equity analysts seem comfortable with Universal Music Groupâs forecast of 8-10% subscription growth through 2028.
In mature markets, future growth will come from higher prices after more than a decade of unchanged subscription fees. âWeâve all gotten comfortable with getting music at what I believe to be a subsidized rate versus its value,â says Jeremy Tucker, founder/managing member of Raven Music Partners, an investor in music catalogs. That subsidy is an underpricing of music subscriptions in order to attract new customers and help platforms achieve scale. Now that there are 818 million global subscribers, according to MIDiA Research, labels and streaming services seem intent on getting more from each subscriber.
Many streaming services raised their prices in 2022 and 2023, and Spotify raised prices in a few markets in 2024. Major labels that have renewed their licensing agreements with Spotify suggested the deals allow for higher-priced superfan tiers. Additionally, Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl said at a March 10 banking conference that âthereâs quite strong evidence that thereâs a lot of room to grow on pricing, especially in ⌠mature markets.â All of this means there will be more value coming to rights holders, says Tucker, who looks at a lengthy time horizon, not any single yearâs results, when considering potential gains. âWe think thereâs going to be growth over the medium to long term. But, in any given year, the actual growth is not something Iâm too worried about.â
Additionally, people expect rights holders will extract more value from catalogs through better blocking and tackling. While companies focused on subscriber growth over the last 15 years, the next era will be marked by better execution, says a person in the music investment field. Artificial intelligence, this person says, can help rights owners expand the global reach of their music by creating versions in multiple foreign languages at little cost. AI can also make royalty collection more effective and cost-efficient. These wins may not have the appeal of, say, a biopic that boosts an artistâs catalog. But from a financial point of view, expanding a songâs reach and cutting costs serve the buyerâs core mission of improving the return on investment.
While U.S. growth slows, much of the world is growing quickly, and Western companies that focus on English-language repertoire face a âbleakâ future as emerging markets outpace markets where English-language music is most popular, says Mulligan. As a result, companies that failed to invest a decade ago are playing catch-up in markets dominated by local music. âWhat they should have done is started signing loads of artists [in emerging markets] 10 to 15 years ago,â Mulligan says.
Still, thereâs opportunity in emerging countries and their local repertoire. Subscription penetration rates â the ratio of subscribers to the countryâs adult population â are a good proxy for a countryâs potential, explains Mulligan. Developed markets like the U.S. and U.K. have penetration rates in the high 40 percent, according to MIDiAâs latest data. Elsewhere, lower penetration rates suggest subscription revenue will increase down the road and, as a result, the local music business infrastructure will grow over time. Polandâs subscription penetration rate, in contrast, is 17%, Brazilâs is 16% and Chinaâs is 13%. Indonesia, the worldâs fourth-most populous country, has a 1.8% penetration rate. India, the worldâs second-largest country, has a penetration rate of just 1.3%.
Low penetration rates correspond with growth potential, as streaming platforms help fuel infrastructure growth and subscription adoption adds more value to the market. âYou get this virtuous circle of influence,â Mulligan explains, âwhere if you establish the infrastructure to create an audience, that creates the virtuous circle of investment, where people start setting up labels, people start being able to have their careers as artists, they create more music, more of that music exports, and the impact on the global market increases. India is maybe a third of the way along in the journey, whereas Indonesia has not even got started.â

With Spotify leading the way in subscriber counts, the number of global music subscribers grew 11.6% to 818.3 million in 2024, according to MIDiA Researchâs music subscribers market shares Q4 2024 report. That was about the same number of subscribers added in 2023, but where those new subscribers originated continues to change.
âThe continued fast rise of the Global South is the market-defining dynamic, pointing to a rebalancing of the global music industry,â Mark Mulligan, managing director/senior music industry analyst, said in a statement. MIDiA Research defines the Global South as regions other than Europe and North America, where subscription penetration rates and prices are the highest in the world. âRevenues still skew heavily to the West but user growth is now consistently coming from elsewhere.â
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Nearly four out of every five new subscribers added in 2024 came from the mid-tier and emerging markets in the Global South, accounting for 78.4% of the 84.8 million new subscriptions last year and nearly three of five global subscribers overall. In turn, the mature streaming markets in Europe and North America represented 41.0% of global subscribers, down from 52.3% in 2020 and 62.0% in 2015.
The Global South has relatively small but fast-growing regions, often places where streaming has enabled a legal music ecosystem to thrive where little to none existed a decade or two ago. As Billboard reported last week, Mexico replaced Australia as the No. 10 market in 2024, according to the IFPI. The Middle East-North Africa region grew 22.8% while Sub-Sahara Africa improved 22.6%. China, the No. 5 market, grew revenues by 9.6%.
Spotify had a 32.2% share of global subscribers and finished 2024 with 236 million global subscribers, according to its latest earnings release. Spotify had more than double the No. 2 company, Chinaâs Tencent Music Entertainment, which had a 14.7% share based on 121 million subscribers. Tencent Music Entertainment operates Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and QQ Music.
Apple Music was No. 3 at 11.6%, which works out to 95 million subscribers. YouTube Music and Amazon Music were tied for fourth at 10.1%,, or 83 million subscribers, each. Neither Apple Music, YouTube Music nor Amazon Music publicly releases their subscriber counts. YouTubeâs latest number of 125 million subscribers announced on March 5 includes both YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, the ad-free tier of the video streaming service.
Apple Music and Amazon Music each lost nearly a percentage point of market share and added fewer subscribers than in the previous year. Of all globally available platforms, YouTube Music was the only major streaming service to post accelerated subscriber growth compared to 2023. That tracks to comments made last year by Universal Music Group CFO Boyd Muir. While Spotify, YouTube [Music] and some regional and local platforms showed âhealthy growth,â Muir said during the companyâs July 24 earnings call, some other, unnamed platforms âhave seen a slowdown in new subscriber additions.â
Chinaâs NetEase Cloud Music was No. 6 at 6.7%, which works out to approximately 55 million subscribers. Russiaâs Yandex was No. 7 with a 5.0% share equal to 41 million subscribers. All othersâincluding TIDAL, Qobuz, SoundCloud, Deezer, Napster and South Koreaâs Melonâhad a combined 9.5% share, which equals roughly 78 million subscribers.
The trend has been clear in recent years: Listeners are less enthralled with new songs. Current musicâs share of ear-time has fallen from 27.8% in 2022 to 27.3% in 2023 to 26.7% last year, according to Luminate. In 2024, listening to catalog albums â releases more than 18 months old â increased by 6.5%, more than twice as fast as consumption of current albums.
Much of the music cued up on streaming services is still relatively recent: Luminate found that tracks released in the last five years account for roughly 50% of on-demand streams in the U.S. Even so, SoundCloud users are much more keenly attuned to the newest releases than the average listener â current music has accounted for more than 46% of plays on the platform in each of the last three years, according to SoundCloudâs latest Music Intelligence Report, an annual run-down of listener behavior which the company is making public for the first time.
The document âhighlights some of our unique positions in the industry,â says Wyatt Marshall, the companyâs director of music intelligence. âAn artist might start on SoundCloud before they go somewhere else. [As a result], you get people coming to listen to new music on SoundCloud, because thatâs where it exists first.â
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For young listeners, new music discovery is increasingly spread across a variety of short-form video platforms and streaming services; TikTok especially has commanded the conversation in recent years. Still, even âin todayâs landscape dominated by TikTok and Instagram, SoundCloud remains a critical launchpad for Gen-Zâs emerging cult favorites,â says Corey Goldglit, manager of A&R at the distribution company Too Lost. âWhile social media fuels trends, and Spotify fuels hits, SoundCloud continues to be where devoted fans first discover raw, innovative talent like Fakemink, OsamaSon, 1oneam, and Nettspend.â
While SoundCloud is best known for nurturing rappers and electronic producers, itâs adding value in other genres as well: Sean Lewow, co-founder of the label Music Soup, has seen the platform introduce listeners to Waylon Wyatt and Vincent Mason, a pair of rising country artists on his roster. (Music Soup is a joint venture with Interscope Records and Darkroom Records.) Uploads of country and folk music on SoundCloud have risen by more than 50% in the last two years, while streams of these styles rose 15% on SoundCloud in 2024.Â
This mirrors the growing interest in these genres in the U.S. and around the world. âThese scenes are attracting people [on SoundCloud] who have always been into it,â Marshall says, âbut also engaging a new group of people who are discovering these sounds.â
Since SoundCloud artists and users can interact with music in ways beyond just clicking âplayâ and âskipâ â commenting on songs, for example, or sending direct messages to peers â the platform has additional data to parse when trying to map scenes. âWe look at social interaction amongst artists as an indicator of affinity,â Marshall explains. âZooming out from that gives a feel for what shapes a scene.â
And for how scenes meld borrow from and build off each other. Historically, itâs been difficult for U.K. hip-hop to acquire fans en masse outside of its home country â even with other English-speaking listeners. The Music Intelligence Report, however, singles out two sets of British acts âthat are building their sound around the U.S. underground while adding a unique English twist;â in the process, they are âdrawing listeners from England and beyond.âÂ
These two groups â the first includes fakemink, Feng, and GhostInnaFurCoat, while the other counts Rico Ace, kwes e, and TeeboFG as members â enjoyed a 71% uptick in streams in the past two years, according to SoundCloudâs data. âIn recent months,â the report continues, âtracks from these artists are increasingly showing engagement spikes indicative of future success.â
The Music Intelligence Report identifies other sounds that SoundCloud believes are poised to become more popular in 2025: Vinahouse, which Marshall describes as a âhyper-speed, really energeticâ style of club music thatâs popular in Vietnam; Brazilian plugg, the latest mutation of a hip-hop sub-genre that has thrived on SoundCloud for several years; and shoegaze, which has also been enjoying a revival on TikTok.Â
New rappers continue to see success on the platform as well. The third most-played account created on SoundCloud last year belonged to BabyChiefDoIt, who trailed behind only VonOff1700 and Raq Baby. BabyChiefDoIt signed a deal with Artist Partner Group in August, and Izzy Elefant, the labelâs head of streaming, calls the platform an âessentialâ part of the rapperâs rise.Â
SoundCloudâs features, especially âreal-time comments and direct messaging, create an interactive experience that sets it apart from other streaming services,â Elefant continues. âThese tools allow BabyChiefDoIt to engage with listeners directly, receive immediate feedback, and foster a sense of community.â
In a splintered landscape for music discovery, Lewow adds, itâs important to âleave no stone unturned.â SoundCloud âhas opened our artists up to an audience that they might not have found otherwise.â
DJing just got a bit more streamlined, with Apple Music today (March 25) announcing a new feature called DJ With Apple Music. The integration allows DJs to build and mix sets directly from the DSPâs catalog of over 100 million songs.
The technology was made in partnership with DJ software and hardware platforms AlphaTheta, Serato, and inMusicâs Engine DJ, Denon DJ, Numark and RANE DJ. It expands an initial Apple Music integration with Algoriddimâs djay Pro software.
âApple Music is committed to supporting DJs,â says Stephen Campbell, Apple Musicâs global head of dance, electronic & DJ Mixes. âWith this latest integration, weâre taking that commitment even furtherâseamlessly connecting Apple Music with the industryâs leading DJ software and hardware. This innovation brings the full power of Apple Music into the creative workflow, making it easier than ever for DJs to access, play, and discover music in real time.â
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âThe integration of djay with Apple Music across mobile, desktop, and spatial devices opens up a world of creative possibilities for both beginners and seasoned pros,â adds Algoriddim CEO Karim Morsy. âWith instant access to Apple Musicâs catalog of over 100 million songs, DJs can mix anytime, anywhere â transforming the way they discover and play their favorite music. Whether using Automix for a seamless, hands-free experience or crafting their own unique sets with djayâs powerful mixing tools, this integration marks a major milestone in making DJing more accessible than ever.â
With the launch, Apple Music joins the list of DSPs that allow DJing directly from the platform, with Tidal, Deezer, Beatport and Soundcloud all featuring similar technology.
DJ With Apple Music expands the platformâs investment in DJ sets, as last December Apple Music launched Apple Music Club, a live, 24/7 global radio station featuring curated mixes from a wide collection of DJs. Todayâs launch also includes a new DJ with Apple Music category page listing, a statement by the company says, âa series of DJ-friendly editorial playlists, along with new curator pages for each DJ software and hardware platform showcasing any mixes or sample playlists that can be used to practice.â
The digital media and ecommerce company Infinite Reality announced that it acquired the streamer Napster for $207 million on Tuesday (March 25). This marks the third time Napster has changed hands in the last five years.
âWith Infinite Realityâs expertise in immersive 3D technology, we will transform Napster into a next-generation platform where fans donât just listen on their own â they experience music in entirely new ways,â Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos said in a statement. âThis isnât just a new chapter for Napster, itâs the beginning of a more interactive and social music experience for the next era of the internet.â
Working with Napster, Infinite Reality aims to provide artists with the tools to create 3D virtual spaces and sell physical and virtual merchandise. âImagine stepping into a virtual venue to watch an exclusive show with friends,â said Vlassopulos, or to âchat with your favorite artist in their own virtual hangout as they drop their new single.â Vlassopulos previously served as head of music at Roblox, which has offered similar experiences to artists and labels.
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Infinite Reality has been expanding rapidly in recent years, reporting that it spent around $800 million on acquisitions in 2024 alone. The companyâs goal is âlead an internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one,â according to Infinite Reality CEO John Acunto.
The spending spree has continued this year. In January, Infinite Reality announced that it had raised $3 billion. A few weeks later, it acquired the company Obsess, which has worked on 3D digital stores and experiences for brands like Ralph Lauren, Crate & Barrel, and J.Crew. Napster is Infinite Realityâs latest target.
Napster famously launched in 1999 as a file-sharing service that allowed users to download tracks for free. It later became a licensed streaming service, albeit a small one: It had a little more than 1 million monthly active users at the end of 2020, according to Music Ally.
That year, the virtual reality concert app MelodyVR bought Napster for $70 million. Hivemind Capital Partners and cryptocurrency company Algorand became the streamerâs new owners in 2022.Â
In an interview after that acquisition, Vlassopulos said he hoped Napster could foster âmuch more of [a] community experienceâ and not just be âa transactional consumption vehicle.â
Infinite Realityâs Acunto echoed that rhetoric this week. âI firmly believe that the artist-fan relationship is evolving,â he said in a statement. âFans [are] craving hyper-personalized, intimate access to their favorite artists, while artists are searching for innovative ways to deepen connections with fans, and access new streams of revenue.â
A âdatapocalypseâ hit the music industry this week as both the RIAA and IFPI reported 2024 numbers, following MIDiA Researchâs annual tally a week earlier â and all three agreed that growth slowed in 2024. The IFPIâs figures and rankings of top markets revealed the rise of emerging markets, while the U.S.-focused RIAA figures revealed that growth in the United States was particularly weak (although not the worst in the world). Â Â
The trends seen in these reports have consequences for the global music industry. Companies follow opportunities, and emerging markets are attractive places to put resources. In November, Billboard published a story about major labelsâ pivot in investment strategy from tech startups to old-school music companies in small and developing markets. As majors face slowing growth in mature markets, theyâre looking for growth elsewhere â especially China, India and Africa. Independent companies such as Believe have long pursued markets around the world, too, betting on the rise of streaming and the increasing popularity of local music. Â Â
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The trio of reports underscore that slow streaming growth in many markets will need to be addressed. To that end, labels are already working to improve payouts through super-premium tiers that carry higher prices and working with streaming platforms to ensure âprofessionalâ artists get better remuneration than hobbyists, background noise and nature sounds. Ridding streaming platforms of AI-generated tracks will also improve labelsâ payouts. Â
The reports differ because they represent different types of income. The IFPI reports trade revenue â the money collected by distributors and record labels â while much of the RIAAâs report shows the retail value, or the money collected by streaming platforms and retailers. In addition, the RIAA numbers cover only the U.S. while the IFPI and MIDiA reports track the global business. MIDiA Research includes additional revenue streams not found in RIAA or IFPI reports: expanded rights, which includes merchandise, sponsorships and other revenue that does not originate from master rights; and production music, which is growing in importance in music licensing but is typically outside the purview of record labels. Â
Following are the four main takeaways from the three reports.Â
Emerging Markets Were the Story of 2024Â
The most established markets mostly kept their place in the pecking order, but there was one momentous change in 2024. In a sign of the times, Australia, which ranked No. 10 on the IFPI rankings in both 2022 and 2023, was replaced by Mexico. While Australia improved 6.1%, Mexico expanded 15.6% thanks to a huge improvement in subscription revenue. In fact, the Latin America region grew an astounding 22.5%. Brazil, the No. 9 market, grew 21.7% â the fastest rate in the top 10. Â
Despite having a relatively small population of approximately 27 million, Australia has historically punched above its weight in music spending. The country ranked No. 6 in both 2014 and 2015 before falling off the top 10 in 2024 for the first time in nearly three decades. Meanwhile, Â Mexico â which had never cracked the top 10 before now â has roughly 130 million people, a booming streaming market and a flourishing music scene. Â
To be fair, Mexico is more of a mid-tier market than an emerging market. In terms of IFPI rankings, the country is emerging only in the sense that it âemergedâ into the top 10. But it has a lot in common with emerging markets, including high growth rates and ample room for more subscriptions. In mature markets, subscribers are becoming harder to find.
China held firm at No. 5, its same ranking as the previous two years. With the worldâs largest population and a fast-growing subscription streaming market, the country has risen from No. 7 in 2019 and No. 10 in 2017. Its largest music streaming company, Tencent Music Entertainment, finished the year with 121 million subscribers â more than all the streaming subscribers in the U.S. Â
In terms of pure growth rate, the top regions were the smaller Middle East-North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa, which grew at 22.8% and 22.6%, respectively. Â
Prior to 2024, the same markets had appeared in the top 10 for the last decade, sometimes in a different order. In 2017, China and Brazil entered the top 10, knocking out Italy and the Netherlands. Brazil had been in the top 10 in previous years but was absent in 2016. Now, with Mexico and emerging markets surging, we may be seeing a bigger shakeup in the top 10 in the future.Â
U.S. Growth Underperformed Nearly Every Other MarketÂ
In a business where year-over-year growth has become commonplace, the large, mature music markets donât have the appeal of the smaller, fast-growing ones. So, while the U.S. remained the worldâs largest market â by a wide margin â its revenue growth didnât even keep up with 2024âs 2.9% inflation rate (depending on which numbers youâre looking at). Â
U.S. revenue growth slowed to 2.2% according to the IFPI report, or 3.2% according to the RIAA report. Together, the U.S. and Canada, which grew 1.5% in 2024, accounted for 40.3% of global revenue but grew just 2.1%, according to the IFPI report. Japan, the worldâs second-largest market, dropped 0.2% as a 5.5% increase in streaming â led by a 7.2% gain in subscription revenue â was offset by a 2.7% decline in physical revenue. South Korea, the No. 7 market, fell 5.7%. The total Asia region grew 1.3%, however, in part due to China increasing 9.6%. Â
Some other major markets fared better than the U.S. As Billboard previously reported, U.K. revenues increased 4.8% and Germany rose 7.8%. Â
Subscriptions Are Stronger Than Ever
Subscriptions are the lifeblood of the record industry, accounting for more than 74% of global streaming revenue and 51.2% of total revenue in 2024, up from 49.1% in 2023, according to the IFPI. Of the global industryâs $1.4 billion added in 2024, $1.3 billion came from subscription streaming.  Â
That said, the U.S. subscription market slowed considerably in 2024. Global subscription revenue rose 9.5% to $10.46 billion â almost double the 5.3% growth rate in the U.S., according to the RIAA. That 5.3% gain was half of 2023âs 10.6% improvement and well under 2022âs 7.2% growth (the 22.2% subscription growth seen in 2021 was a fortunate aberration of the pandemic). While a reversion to the mean was expected in successive years, 5.3% isnât much, especially in a year when Spotify raised prices.
Ad-Supported Music, On the Other HandâŚÂ
Global ad-supported streaming grew just 3% to $3.62 billion, according to the IFPI. Thatâs a paltry number given the growth of streaming in large emerging markets such as India and Indonesia. But 3% global growth outperformed the U.S., where the RIAA report showed that ad-supported streaming dropped 1.8% and hasnât had a double-digit gain since 2021. Â
For all the popularity of subscription music services, consumers will continue to use ad-supported platforms â video platforms like YouTube, social media apps like TikTok and radio services such as Pandora. And for freemium services such as Spotify, the ad-supported tier is a critical gateway to the premium tiers. Â
But the state of the economy suggests advertising dollars could be difficult in 2025, too, as advertisers tend to pull back their spending at the first signs of an economic slowdown. SiriusXM CFO Tom Barry, speaking at a banking conference on March 11, said advertising started âto see a drop-offâ in previous weeks following the Trump administrationâs tariff threats. âI would say weâre cautious about where the ad industry is going right now,â he warned.Â
In a first for a music streaming company, Paris-based Qobuz has publicly released the per-stream royalty rate it pays to rights holders. Qobuz tells Billboard it paid out an average per-stream royalty rate of $0.018732, or 1.8782 cents, in the 12 months ended March 31, 2024. That all-in rate, which covers both recorded music and publishing, works out to $18.73 for every 1,000 streams.Â
âToday, we are taking this step for greater transparency,â Qobuz deputy CEO Georges Fornay said in a statement. âOur payout rates are now public. This unprecedented move in our industry is a necessary first step toward promoting a fairer and more sustainable streaming model. Choosing Qobuz means taking concrete action for fairer compensation for all artists and supporting musical diversity, values that our customers cherish.âÂ
One reason streaming companies havenât released their per-stream royalty rates is because royalties arenât paid on a simple, per-stream basis. Rather, royalties are the result of complex calculations based on such factors as market share and guaranteed minimums. Qobuz admits as much in the press release announcing its first-of-its-kind calculation, which was conducted by a major accounting firm. âIt should be noted that the methods of payment to labels and publishers are not systematically based on remuneration per stream,â it reads. âCalculation methods may vary from one contract to another.â Â
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Nevertheless, the per-stream royalty rate has persisted as a popular metric for gauging streaming servicesâ value to artists and rights holders. And although Qobuz is often mentioned as the platform with the highest per-stream rate, there are no official numbers to show its place in the royalty hierarchy. Companies have disclosed the amounts of royalties paid annually and cumulatively, but never, until now, on a per-stream basis.
At approximately $0.0187 cents per stream, Qobuz ranks well ahead of its peers, based on the limited, imperfect information available. The best comparisons come from music catalog investor Duetti, which released its own calculations in January for per-stream rates paid to independent artists. That report said the average royalty for master recordingsâexcluding the publishing component that Qobuz includedâwas $0.00341 per stream in 2024, though Qobuz wasnât included in those rankings. Publishing typically accounts for approximately 20% of music streaming content costs, which would put Qobuzâs recorded music per-stream royalty at approximately $0.015â4.4 times the average on Duettiâs list.Â
Amazon ranked first on Duettiâs list at $0.0088 per stream and was followed by TIDAL at $0.0068, Apple Music at $0.0062 and YouTube at $0.0048. Spotifyâs $0.003 per-stream payout was lower than its peers because of high usage, geographical mix, reliance on free and discounted plans and Discovery Mode, through which artists accept a lower royalty in exchange for in-app promotion. Â
One reason Qobuz pays relatively well is because it charges a relatively high price. Average revenue per user (ARPU) at Qobuz is $121.13 annually or $22.38 per month, while Spotifyâs latest ARPU (for the quarter ended December 31, 2024) was 4.85 euros ($5.29). In the U.S., Qobuz charges $12.99 per monthâ$1 more than Spotifyâs music-and-audiobook tierâor $129.99 per month when purchased annually. In its home country of France, Qobuz charges 14.99 euros ($16.35) per month or 149.99 euros ($163.55) annually. Thatâs 34% higher than the 11.12 euros ($12.13) per month Spotify charges.Â
The company cited other aspects of its business that result in the relatively high royalty rate. Qobuz does not have an ad-supported tier that would pay less than subscriptions. Additionally, the platform provides greater valued through uncompressed files and high-resolution audio, which, along with âexclusive editorial content,â merit a higher price, the company says. And Qobuz highlights artists and genresâjazz and classical, for exampleâthat are underrepresented at other streaming platforms. As a result, the company argues, more revenue is generated for a wider range of artists. Â
Geography also plays an important role in the size of Qobuzâs royalties. In the 26 markets where where Qobuz is availableâincluding the U.S., Japan, U.K., Germany, France, Sweden and Canadaâconsumers tend to spend money on music subscriptions. The service is not available in many emerging countries such as India where subscription prices are low and listeners overwhelmingly opt for free, ad-supported options. And while Qobuz available in places like Mexico and Brazil where subscription costs are lower, it costs more than its competitors in those markets. In Mexico, for example, Qobuzâs monthly price is 150 pesos ($7.49) to Spotifyâs 129 pesos ($6.44). In Brazil, Qobuz costs R$25.90 ($4.59) to Spotifyâs R$21.90 ($3.88).Â
The difference between Qobuz and its peers may narrow over time as royalty rates improveâslightlyâin the coming years. Spotify, according to reports, plans to launch a higher-priced plan that includes high-quality audio. Various companies are taking measures to marginally improve payouts. Deezer, for example, has changed its royalty scheme by demoting AI-created tracks, removing ânon-artist noise contentâ and provide better payouts to what it terms âprofessional artists.â Spotify changed its royalty payout scheme in 2023. As more platforms follow suit, average royalty rates should inch upward.
Tencent Music Entertainment surpassed revenue of $1 billion in the fourth quarter, representing an 8.2% increase from the prior-year period, while net profit climbed 47.3% to $284 million.Â
The Chinese music streaming company operates three music streaming services â Kugou Music, QQ Music and Kuwo Music â as well as WeSing, a karaoke app. In recent years, Tencent Musicâs business has become increasingly dominated by its music services as its social entertainment business continues to lose business.Â
Online music revenue grew 16.1% to $799 million due to music subscription gains and growth in advertising revenue, while music subscription revenue jumped 18% to $552 million in the quarter as the number of subscribers increased 13.4% to 121 million. Additionally, gross margin jumped to 43.6% in the fourth quarter from 38.3% in the prior-year period. The company attributed the improvement to strong growth in music subscriptions and advertising revenue and increased usage of owned content, as well as its adoption of the Super VIP program, a subscription tier that costs five times the normal rate. Monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) grew to 11.1 RMB ($1.52) from 10.7 RMB ($1.47) due in part to the expansion of the Super VIP membership program.
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The social entertainment business has suffered a sharp decline since the Chinese government began cracking down on the use of live-streaming apps to enable gambling in 2021. In the fourth quarter, social entertainment revenue fell 13% to $223 million and mobile monthly active users declined 21.2% to 82 million (the number stood at 223 million at the end of 2020). Monthly ARPU fell 9.7% to 70.4 RMB ($9.64), down from 172.1 RMB ($26.38) at the end of 2020, and paying users slipped 3.8% to 7.7 million.Â
For the full year, revenue increased 2.3% to $3.89 billion while net profit climbed 36.2% to $974 million, and gross margin improved to 42.3% from 35.3%. Online music revenue grew 25.5% to $2.98 billion while social entertainment revenue fell 36.1% to $912 million. Full-year gross margin improved to 42.3% from 35.3% in 2023.Â
Tencent Music Entertainmentâs music platforms have evolved into one-stop shops that also include audiobooks, merchandise, downloads and live-streaming. In 2024, the company produced physical albums for Xiao Zhan and Lay Zhang and boosted album sales for Esther Yu by providing options to purchase merchandise along with her digital albums. It also partnered with the band Mayday for an online New Yearâs Eve concert.
The company also announced a $273 million dividend and a share repurchase program of up to $1 billion over a two-year period that will commence this month. A $500 million share repurchase program announced in March 2023 will conclude this month.Â
Tencent Music Entertainmentâs shares, which trade on both the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, had risen 15.8% to $15.12 on the NYSE at the close of trading on Tuesday.