28.6 billion dollars

Music streaming once again generates record sales

Growth was seen across all regions and music genres.(Bild: ©auremar - stock.adobe.com)

The growing popularity of streaming services such as Spotify has brought the music industry its ninth consecutive year of revenue growth in 2023. Revenues rose by a good ten percent worldwide to a record high of 28.6 billion dollars, the industry association IFPI announced on Thursday. 

Sales of physical sound carriers such as records and CDs even increased by more than 13 percent. Only revenues from music downloads declined, it said.

The growth extended across all regions and music genres, said John Nolan, interim co-head of the association. The markets south of the Sahara had seen the strongest growth. Here, the increase amounted to almost 25 percent. This was followed by Latin America with growth of just under 20 percent.

Nolan's colleague Lauri Rechardt called these figures encouraging. "However, we must also recognize the challenges facing the industry, including streaming fraud, digital piracy and, of course, the threat posed by the misuse of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)."