Streaming
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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.
“With Infinite Reality’s expertise in immersive 3D technology, we will transform Napster into a next-generation platform where fans don’t just listen on their own — they experience music in entirely new ways,” Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos said in a statement. “This isn’t just a new chapter for Napster, it’s the beginning of a more interactive and social music experience for the next era of the internet.”
Working with Napster, Infinite Reality aims to provide artists with the tools to create 3D virtual spaces and sell physical and virtual merchandise. “Imagine stepping into a virtual venue to watch an exclusive show with friends,” said Vlassopulos, or to “chat with your favorite artist in their own virtual hangout as they drop their new single.” 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 company’s goal is “lead an internet industry shift from a flat 2D clickable web to a 3D conversational one,” 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 Reality’s 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 streamer’s new owners in 2022.
In an interview after that acquisition, Vlassopulos said he hoped Napster could foster “much more of [a] community experience” and not just be “a transactional consumption vehicle.”
Infinite Reality’s Acunto echoed that rhetoric this week. “I firmly believe that the artist-fan relationship is evolving,” he said in a statement. “Fans [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.”
A “datapocalypse” hit the music industry this week as both the RIAA and IFPI reported 2024 numbers, following MIDiA Research’s annual tally a week earlier — and all three agreed that growth slowed in 2024. The IFPI’s 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).
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 labels’ 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, they’re looking for growth elsewhere — 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.
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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 “professional” artists get better remuneration than hobbyists, background noise and nature sounds. Ridding streaming platforms of AI-generated tracks will also improve labels’ payouts.
The reports differ because they represent different types of income. The IFPI reports trade revenue — the money collected by distributors and record labels — while much of the RIAA’s 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.
Following are the four main takeaways from the three reports.
Emerging Markets Were the Story of 2024
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% — the fastest rate in the top 10.
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, Mexico — which had never cracked the top 10 before now — has roughly 130 million people, a booming streaming market and a flourishing music scene.
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 “emerged” 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 world’s 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 — more than all the streaming subscribers in the U.S.
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.
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.
U.S. Growth Underperformed Nearly Every Other Market
In a business where year-over-year growth has become commonplace, the large, mature music markets don’t have the appeal of the smaller, fast-growing ones. So, while the U.S. remained the world’s largest market — by a wide margin — its revenue growth didn’t even keep up with 2024’s 2.9% inflation rate (depending on which numbers you’re looking at).
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 world’s second-largest market, dropped 0.2% as a 5.5% increase in streaming — led by a 7.2% gain in subscription revenue — 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%.
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%.
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 industry’s $1.4 billion added in 2024, $1.3 billion came from subscription streaming.
That said, the U.S. subscription market slowed considerably in 2024. Global subscription revenue rose 9.5% to $10.46 billion — almost double the 5.3% growth rate in the U.S., according to the RIAA. That 5.3% gain was half of 2023’s 10.6% improvement and well under 2022’s 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% isn’t much, especially in a year when Spotify raised prices.
Ad-Supported Music, On the Other Hand…
Global ad-supported streaming grew just 3% to $3.62 billion, according to the IFPI. That’s 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 hasn’t had a double-digit gain since 2021.
For all the popularity of subscription music services, consumers will continue to use ad-supported platforms — 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.
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 “to see a drop-off” in previous weeks following the Trump administration’s tariff threats. “I would say we’re cautious about where the ad industry is going right now,” he warned.
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.
“Today, we are taking this step for greater transparency,” Qobuz deputy CEO Georges Fornay said in a statement. “Our 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.”
One reason streaming companies haven’t released their per-stream royalty rates is because royalties aren’t 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. “It should be noted that the methods of payment to labels and publishers are not systematically based on remuneration per stream,” it reads. “Calculation methods may vary from one contract to another.”
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Nevertheless, the per-stream royalty rate has persisted as a popular metric for gauging streaming services’ 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 recordings—excluding the publishing component that Qobuz included—was $0.00341 per stream in 2024, though Qobuz wasn’t included in those rankings. Publishing typically accounts for approximately 20% of music streaming content costs, which would put Qobuz’s recorded music per-stream royalty at approximately $0.015—4.4 times the average on Duetti’s list.
Amazon ranked first on Duetti’s list at $0.0088 per stream and was followed by TIDAL at $0.0068, Apple Music at $0.0062 and YouTube at $0.0048. Spotify’s $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.
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 Spotify’s latest ARPU (for the quarter ended December 31, 2024) was 4.85 euros ($5.29). In the U.S., Qobuz charges $12.99 per month—$1 more than Spotify’s music-and-audiobook tier—or $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. That’s 34% higher than the 11.12 euros ($12.13) per month Spotify charges.
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 “exclusive editorial content,” merit a higher price, the company says. And Qobuz highlights artists and genres—jazz and classical, for example—that are underrepresented at other streaming platforms. As a result, the company argues, more revenue is generated for a wider range of artists.
Geography also plays an important role in the size of Qobuz’s royalties. In the 26 markets where where Qobuz is available—including the U.S., Japan, U.K., Germany, France, Sweden and Canada—consumers 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, Qobuz’s monthly price is 150 pesos ($7.49) to Spotify’s 129 pesos ($6.44). In Brazil, Qobuz costs R$25.90 ($4.59) to Spotify’s R$21.90 ($3.88).
The difference between Qobuz and its peers may narrow over time as royalty rates improve—slightly—in 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 “non-artist noise content” and provide better payouts to what it terms “professional artists.” 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.
The Chinese music streaming company operates three music streaming services — Kugou Music, QQ Music and Kuwo Music — as well as WeSing, a karaoke app. In recent years, Tencent Music’s business has become increasingly dominated by its music services as its social entertainment business continues to lose business.
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.
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.
Tencent Music Entertainment’s 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 Year’s 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.
Tencent Music Entertainment’s 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.
French streaming platform Deezer reported on Tuesday it had 7 million euros ($7.6 million) in free cash flow for the fiscal year 2024, having achieved break-even status for the first time in its nearly 18-year history last fall.
Founded in August 2007, Deezer has struggled to build its brand outside of its home market in France. But in recent years, it has raised prices and expanded its subscriber-base by being the streaming platform powering German broadcaster RTL, American speaker company Sonos and Latin America’s version of Amazon, Mercado Libre.
“This is an exciting milestone, and it puts Deezer in control of its own destiny,” Deezer Chief Financial Officer Carl de Place tells Billboard on becoming cash-flow positive. “We have been able to exceed our guidance and to deliver 11.8% growth thanks to a nearly 10% increase in direct revenue from France, and the revenue from our partnerships business, which grew at 24% year over year.”
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A growing number of streaming platforms have raised prices in recent years, and Deezer was at the forefront having raised subscription prices in France, its largest market, in January 2022 and other markets later in the year. After Apple, Amazon, YouTube and Spotify all followed with their own increases, Deezer raised its prices again in September 2023.
The company reported revenue increased 12% to 542 million euros ($590.8 million), above their 10% growth target. Direct revenue in France increased 9.7% from the year ago period thanks to a 4.3% increase in subscriber revenue and greater average revenue per user (ARPU). Revenue from partners white labeling its services rose 24% year over year.
While not a profitable fiscal year, the company said it saw strong improvement. Adjusted earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the full year was negative 4 million euros ($4.4 million), and a 21.2% increase in its adjusted gross profit to 134 million euros ($146 million), equal to a 24.7% margin. The company had 62 million euros ($67.6 million) cash in its reserves at year end.
The company plans to double-down on its brand partnership strategy, while maintaining focus on further growing its presence in France with new features allowing users to customize their feed on the streaming platform and opportunities to more directly interact with artists, de Place says.
“Profitable growth is what you should expect going forward. We are prepared to continue to deliver positive free cash flow, to reinvest in the company and also add to our reserves,” de Place says.
Recorded music revenue in the United States notched record-high revenues of $17.7 billion in 2024, marking a modest 3% increase from 2023 but capping a ninth straight year of upward mobility for the U.S. business, according to the RIAA. Like a broken record, this growth was once again primarily driven by streaming and the enduring popularity of vinyl.
The music industry’s total revenue gain of 3% in 2024 is a decrease from the 7.7% increase seen in 2023.
Streaming continued to dominate the music industry, accounting for 84% of total revenues for the third consecutive year. Streaming revenue grew by 4% to $14.9 billion, with paid subscriptions the leading contributor, rising 5% to $11.7 billion, which alone made up 79% of all streaming revenues and nearly two-thirds of all recorded music revenue.
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For the first time, the number of paid subscriptions surpassed 100 million, increasing by 3% from the previous year’s tally of 97 million.
However, revenue from limited-tier subscriptions — which include services like Amazon Prime, Pandora Plus, fitness streaming services and other paid subs that don’t offer full, on-demand catalogs — declined by 2% to $1 billion. It’s an improvement over 2023, though, when that drop was 4%.
Reversing last year’s gains, ad-supported streaming experienced a slight decline. Revenue from ad-supported on-demand music services like YouTube and Spotify’s free tier dropped by 2% to $1.8 billion. (Last year it was 2% but in the black.) Digital and customized radio services, including SiriusXM, grew modestly by 3% to reach $1.4 billion. SoundExchange distributions, which handle payments for artists and copyright holders, rose by 5% to $1.1 billion, while other ad-supported streaming revenue fell by 4% to $306 million.
Most physical music formats saw a continued resurgence, with total revenues increasing by 5% to $2 billion. Vinyl was the standout performer yet again, growing by 7% to $1.4 billion, marking its 18th consecutive year of growth. Vinyl albums outsold CDs, with 44 million units sold compared to 33 million CDs. A year prior, those numbers were 43.2 million and 37 million, meaning the gap between the physical cousins is growing. Despite these trends, CD revenue still grew by 1% to $541 million compared to $537.1 million.
Digital downloads continued their downward spiral, decreasing by 18% to $336 million, compared to $434.1 million in 2023. This category now represents only 2% of the total music industry revenue, a significant drop from its 2012 peak when it accounted for 43% of the market. Both individual track and album downloads saw double-digit percentage declines.
The overall percentage breakdown between digital and physical revenue—88% to 12%—has remained consistent since 2018, with only minor fluctuations of 1% in either direction over the years. At the wholesale level, total revenue increased by 2.7%, rising to $11.3 billion from last year’s $11 billion, marking the third consecutive year this metric has surpassed the $10 billion mark.
The organization noted that this marks the first year of direct reporting from independent labels, including sync revenue estimates from indie sources.
RIAA chairman & CEO Mitch Glazier highlighted the “historic milestone” of over 100 million paid subs driving two-thirds of revenues, calling it an “extraordinary achievement by an industry that has successfully focused on its creative and commercial core by championing innovative new services, options, and experiences that add real value for fans.”
Glazier added: “Music has never been more dynamic, compelling, and relevant – reaching out beyond our earbuds with conversation-driving cultural touchstones like unforgettable halftime performances, historic television moments or must-see films and biopics. And American fans and superfans’ dedication to the artists they support promises an even brighter future as record labels work to create new opportunities that boost incomes for artists and diverse revenue streams to grow the pie for everyone with a stake in the music economy.”
RIAA’s Year-End Report By the Numbers:
The U.S. recorded music industry reached an all-time high of $17.7 billion in estimated retail value.
Streaming generated $14.9 billion — making up 84% of total industry revenue.
Paid music subscriptions surpassed 100 million for the first time, contributing $11.7 billion, nearly two-thirds of total revenue.
Vinyl sales increased for the 18th straight year, reaching $1.4 billion, the highest level since 1984.
For the third year in a row, vinyl records (44 million units) outsold CDs (33 million units).
Global fandom platform Stationhead, which allows fans to host listening parties for their favorite artists — with the artists themselves occasionally joining in — is bringing e-commerce to the platform with a new feature. Dubbed Stationhead Shop, the new e-commerce experience will allow artists to offer merch directly on Stationhead by hosting their own “Shops,” […]
Whether it was Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” LiAngelo Ball’s “Tweaker,” or the six songs at the heart of Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s epic rap battle last year, Billboard has recently spent a lot of time reporting on how much money a hit song generates.
For a look back at our coverage, we estimated how much the top 10 songs of 2024 earned, what GELO’s locker room anthem has netted, and the millions made from Drake and Lamar’s diss tracks.
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These stories sparked questions from readers, including one that came up repeatedly: Does a hit song today make more money than a hit did before streaming took off?
We asked this question of roughly a dozen music economists, entertainment industry bankers, and record label and streaming company executives, and they largely agreed that streaming has increased the long-term value of a hit song. However, hit songs used to drive album sales, which may have been more lucrative upfront.
It is difficult to directly compare the value of a hit song in 2024 to a hit song in 1999 — the year that record industry revenue peaked in the modern era — because the business largely moved away from issuing singles by the late 1990s. To hear a hit song, then, a fan would buy an album for as much as $18.98.
In 1999, when albums were the dominant configuration for music, 88 albums sold more than 1 million units in the U.S., according to Billboard. Albums often sold for more than their wholesale price of $12, which could mean certain older hits had a greater upfront value. However, the sources Billboard spoke with for this story all agreed that after a fan owned an album, they had little incentive to pay for that particular music again — so after about 12-18 months, the album would stop making much money.
In contrast, streaming keeps all music closer to fans’ fingertips, and hits tend to continue making money over a longer period, as opposed to a brief hype window in the album sales era.
One longtime record label executive who asked to remain anonymous estimated that a gold record in 1999 generated more than $6 million in sales, based on a wholesale price of around $12. Adjusted for inflation, that’s the equivalent of $11.3 million in 2024 dollars, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
In 2024, the biggest hit was Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” and Billboard estimated it generated $10.7 million from U.S. audio, video and programmed streams, digital downloads, and radio airplay spins. But due to streaming’s long tail, which has helped keep “A Bar Song” in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, the track has continued earning significant streams in 2025: more than 140 million on-demand audio and video streams, or $192,000 in additional streaming revenue, just this year.
“[Back then], after a huge spike in revenue, a hit would have decayed over time by 60%, 70%, 80%, and eventually the song would drop to a much lower base,” says Concord CEO Bob Valentine. “Now in the streaming world, a song comes out, you get the huge pop from consumption and revenue, and because of the way algorithms keep a song in playlists and rotation, the song is much stickier. It has a higher base.”
Valentine says this is why companies like his have been able to persuade outside investors that music royalties can be securitized and sold to institutional investors like insurance companies. Concord has become the music industry’s model for raising money from such asset backed securitizations (ABS), having raised more than $5 billion to date.
While Concord is known for owning famous catalogs from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it scored a top 10 hit in 2024 with Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” which Billboard estimates generated around $7.4 million.
If Concord’s catalogs are like bonds — generating consistent revenue that can be relied on for decades — hits are more like venture capital. After an initial investment, a hit can present substantial upside, Valentine says. Concord is now comfortably the fourth or fifth largest music company thanks to the strength of its publishing division and catalog, so it can afford to take risks to get more hits, which is why it’s pushing to develop its front-line business to release more songs like “Million Dollar Baby.”
The music industry globally made $41.3 billion in 2023, according to the most recent data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs (CISAC).
The IFPI, which reports figures on an absolute dollar basis, not adjusted for inflation, says global recorded music revenues are at their highest level since it began tracking them in 1999.
Several sources interviewed for this story noted that, despite record-high revenues in the music industry, not everyone who contributes to making or performing a hit song makes more money today, and that many songwriters may have made more money in 1999.
For one thing, the number of songwriters credited on a hit song has increased significantly in the last decade, according to an analysis by Chris Dalla Riva in 2023. Dalla Riva found that the average number of songwriters per Hot 100 No. 1 hit rose from 1.8 during the 1970s to 5.3 in the 2010s. He noted that with interpolations, many songs credit far more songwriters: For example, Beyoncé’s Renaissance song “Alien Superstar” listed 24 songwriters.
“There is more money, we can all agree, but there are way more mouths to feed,” former Spotify chief economist and author Will Page said in an interview with the BBC in January.
Songwriters don’t just make less money because more of them work on major hits; they also make less because of the way streaming changed payouts, sources say. When the industry revolved around album sales, a songwriter on a less popular song earned the same as a songwriter on the album’s most popular song.
The rising tide effect no longer applies today because fans stream songs on a mostly a la carte basis.
Additional reporting was contributed by Ed Christman.
Playboi Carti‘s new album is off to a strong start on streaming platforms.
Following its release on Friday (March 14), the Atlanta rapper’s long-awaited third studio album, MUSIC, became Spotify‘s most-streamed album in a single day in 2025 so far.
“Carti’s MUSIC is already making history,” the streaming giant captioned its announcement on X on Saturday.
In the lead-up to the album’s release, Spotify supported the rollout by putting up billboards in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, and Miami, displaying messages like “STREETS READY,” “SORRY4 DA WAIT” and “I AM MUSIC MF.”
MUSIC was preceded by the official single “All Red,” which reached No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 3 on Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Carti also released several tracks on his YouTube and Instagram, including “2024,” “BACKR00MS” featuring Travis Scott, and “H00DBYAIR.”
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Additionally, Carti performed unreleased songs during his headlining set at Rolling Loud Miami in December 2024, including “Lose You” featuring The Weeknd. Carti and The Weeknd’s collaboration “Timeless,” from The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow album, reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 last year, following the success of their platinum-certified hit “Popular” with Madonna.
MUSIC features star-studded collaborations from Young Thug, Travis Scott, Future, Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, Lil Uzi Vert, Skepta and Ty Dolla $ign. It also boasts an impressive list of producers, including Cardo, Metro Boomin, Southside, F1lthy, Ye, Cash Cobain and the production duo Ojivolta, among others.
The 30-track project arrives five years after Carti’s last album, Whole Lotta Red, which topped the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The 2020 set featured collaborations with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) on “Go2DaMoon,” Kid Cudi on “M3tamorphosis,” and Future on “Teen X.”
Carti is set to headline Rolling Loud California on Sunday (March 16). The festival posted on X earlier this week, noting that his 2018 debut album, Die Lit, dropped the day before Rolling Loud Miami, and he’s continuing that tradition by releasing MUSIC the day before Rolling Loud California opens.
When it comes to the value of music royalties, some artists have an advantage based on where they live.
Nigerian artists earned more than $43 million from Spotify in 2024, according to the streaming giant’s latest Loud and Clear report. A “significant” portion of those royalties came from outside Nigeria, with exports of the country’s music increasing 49% over the last three years. In other words, people in other countries — many of which provide better royalties than are available in Nigeria — are listening to Nigerian artists, effectively sending their money to the West African country.
Spotify’s Loud & Clear report provides good insight into how royalties are split between superstars, merely popular artists and everybody else. In 2024, 71,200 artists earned at least $10,000 in royalties from the streaming service, up from 66,000 in 2023, while 670 artists earned more than $2 million, an increase from 570 the prior year.
Read between the lines of the Loud & Clear data and you’ll see that royalties have different values to musicians in different countries. If you’re a recording artist in India, where free, ad-supported listening dwarfs relatively cheap subscriptions, you’re better off receiving your royalties from a country like the U.S. where subscriptions are many and prices are high. If you’re an Afrobeats artist in Nigeria, a U.S. stream is worth more than a stream at home.
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Economist Will Page found that almost a third of all streams inside the U.S. in 2023 came from artists outside the U.S. The top music exporter to the U.S. was the U.K. — which has roughly the same royalty rates as the U.S. — but the No. 2 exporter was Mexico, a country where a Spotify individual subscription costs the equivalent of $6.49. Colombia, where a Spotify subscription costs the equivalent of $4.12, was No. 6. As Page wrote in his roundup of 2023 global recorded music revenues, Mexican artists’ U.S. streams were worth more than three times what they would have earned had they originated in their home country. For Colombian artists, their U.S. streams were worth more than six times what they would have earned in their home country.
In a global music business driven by streaming platforms, artists can earn more by tapping into more lucrative markets. A Nigerian artist should want more U.S. fans. A Colombian artist gets more from a U.S. stream. It’s a form of arbitrage — buying low and selling high.
In the digital era, choosing where to live is also a form of arbitrage. People with the ability to work remotely are increasingly choosing to live somewhere more affordable. Millions of Americans have moved to states with lower costs of living in recent years, with some leaving the country for safe havens in Europe as political discourse turned sour. States such as Texas, Florida and Tennessee are attractive for the (relatively) cheaper costs of living and lack of state income tax. Digital nomadism goes internationally, too, as people work remotely from faraway places — co-working spaces have sprouted on the Indonesian island of Bali, for example — with a substantially lower cost of living. Dozens of countries offer a digital nomad visa, called a remote working visa.
Musical nomadism isn’t a thing — yet. And this is more of a thought experiment than a serious proposal. Moving to a foreign country would take artists away from a large, lucrative concert market. And unless a musician plans to infiltrate the local music scene in their new home, they would be without the networking and personal connections that foster both creativity and commerce. An artist with children and a spouse would also have to pull deep roots to leave the country. But if an artist only wants to record and release music online, living elsewhere — not just Texas or Tennessee, but a country where the cost of living is far lower than in the U.S. — would improve the economics of music streaming.
Given the value of listeners in mature streaming markets, a stream in the U.S. and U.K. is worth far more than a stream in many other countries. Spotify costs $11.99 per month for an individual in the U.S. In Nigeria, an individual Spotify subscription costs the equivalent of $0.84 per month. And if Nigeria is like other developing markets, ad-supported streaming — which returns less value to artists and rights holders — is far more popular than paid subscriptions.
In Nigeria, $1 in the U.S. has the spending power of over $8, based on the difference between Nigeria’s gross domestic product in nominal dollars and purchasing power parity. In other words, goods that cost $1 in Nigeria would cost $8 in the U.S. Other countries provide similar boosts in spending power. In Indonesia, $1 feels like $3.30 in the U.S. In Colombia, $1 has the spending power of $2.70. In Mexico, having $1 is like having $1.90 up north.
Differences in costs of living would make royalties seem far more valuable. A typical 0.35-cent per-stream royalty would feel like 2.8 cents in Nigeria, 1.2 cents in Indonesia, 0.95 cents in Colombia and 0.66 cents in Mexico. An American artist who earns $5,000 from a synch placement would get more from that income by walking across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Musicians who are hesitant to become digital nomads can find solace in the slowly improving streaming economics in developing markets. Mature streaming markets are driven by subscriptions, while developing markets tend to be driven by ad-supported streaming. But it’s widely believed that subscription uptake will improve over time, making those foreign streams worth more over time. And in the U.S., artist-centric policies, rising prices and upcoming super-premium tiers will bring more value to artists and rights holders. In other words, don’t dig out your passport just yet.