Global music revenue 2012-2021, by source

In 2019, global music industry revenues are expected to reach around 26 billion U.S. dollars in total, increasing by more than five billion dollars in the past five years. Digital music streaming has rapidly become the industry’s biggest revenue generator, accounting for over half of all revenue. The importance of physical sales and digital music downloads is expected to decrease further in the coming years while even more of the market’s revenues shift into streaming.

Streaming music

The growing popularity of music streaming subscriptions is especially evident when looking at the monthly active user count of some of the industry’s top services. As of 2018, both Spotify and Apple Music were nearing 50 million monthly active users, while services such as Pandora and SoundCloud reported numbers of well over 30 million.

Music industry

Although consumption habits have changed dramatically over the years, music has remained a crucial element of the entertainment industry around the world. In addition to recorded music, which accounts for the majority of the industry’s income, live music revenues amount to over ten billion U.S. dollars annually. Some of the world’s top selling artists such as Madonna and Elton John have certified sales in the hundreds of millions, further demonstrating the widespread appeal and influence of the industry and its artists.