IFPI Global Music Report 2024: Powering global growth

The music industry has overseen substantial growth over the course of last year, with major platforms such as TikTok and various streaming platforms stepping up to shine a new light on the musical landscape. The IFPI Global Music Report has broken down how every continent fared in 2023 in their own respective musical market.

LATIN AMERICA

When it comes to total musical domination globally, nobody did it better than Latin America in 2023. With a slew of trending artists and the power of an exotic culture, countries such as Brazil and Mexico have seen major improvements in the growth of revenues. The former has generated a 13.4% growth, while the latter 18.2%. That same growth is massively helped by the dedication of Latin American fans, especially Mexican people who have contributed a bunch to the impressive surge of artists such as Feid and Morat. Leila Oliveira, the president of Warner Music Brazil, has expressed her satisfaction stating that the digital consumption of music in Brazil has quickly spread from around major cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to much larger areas of the country. Much praise has been aimed towards Karol G, one of the most successful artists of last year who swept up the Latin Grammys with 3 of those landing into her own collection. She also managed to top the Billboard Top 200 list in the United States and win a Grammy for Best Urban Album. A&R’s of record labels can be thanked for that surge since they are the ones who possess an incredible passion for nurturing the projects of artists. Not only that, but the sense of pride and authenticity has also never been higher in Latin America.

ASIA

As the third-largest region for music, Asia has surpassed every expectation in terms of market growth. Their revenue growth for 2023 has hit a respectable 14.9%. The headline act to Asia’s surge is definitely K-pop. “Superfans” such as the BTS fanbase (self-proclaimed BTS Army) play a major role in the genre’s most recent growth spurt. As per Shridhar Subramaniam, the president of corporate strategy and market development in Asia & Middle East at Sony Music, K-pop’s global impact has become much more than the work of just 2 to 3 artists. He states that the genre as a whole is on the verge of becoming a global creative centre. He also believes that China can develop a paid subscriber base if they transition from the creation of short-form videos to long-form and paid streaming. The number of stadium shows and concerts in China has passed more than 80% of ticket sales revenue since 2019. Japan, in particular, faces a sweet problem in terms of global expansion since the Japanese market itself is the second largest market in the world. India’s pop culture is also on a massive rise with young fans connecting with pop artists that break out of the Bollywood mould more than ever. Vinit Thakkar, the managing director at Sony Music India, said that he is happy to see that music has broken away from the successful soundtrack spectrum into more artist-centered music.

EUROPE

Europe has always been a mature and well-developed music market with its nurturing of local music scenes being one of their main focal points. Within the continent, countries have very different musical landscapes. Across Central Europe, in particular, growth is evident but the dynamic of that rise differs from country to country. For example, countries like Sweden or Norway possess a large number of premium subscribers, while countries from Eastern Europe are still far from that level. One important aim for the European market is to further grow the ecosystem, and they can achieve that by embracing Europe’s variety of local music scenes. France and Italy are major examples of a trend of hyper-localisation. 17 of the top 20 albums in France have been by French artists, while the entirety of the 10 top albums in Italy was by local artists. Federico Sacchi, the A&R director at Sony Music Italy, has much praise directed towards the Italian sensation Maneskin who he believes is the band that opened up numerous opportunities for other Italian artists to grow not just in Italy, but globally as well.

AFRICA

The African music region still continues to be one of the fastest-growing markets in the world, thanks to its close relations with the African culture and roots. Tunji Balogun, chairman and CEO of Def Jam Recordings, explains how he managed to strike a partnership with a Nigerian label Native with whom they closely work. They have decided to do a joint venture in nurturing a Nigerian rapper Odumodubvlck, who ended up being the biggest new artist, arguably on the continent. He is now doing shows in America where he found a rising fanbase. The growth across distinct African genres has been commendable as well. What is so exciting about Africa is that their music has always managed to transcend national and global barriers. Personally, one song that comes to mind for me is Zerb’s massive hit Mwaki with Sofiya Nzau which managed to become a global hit without people knowing what the lyrics mean. All in all, the biggest strategy of African labels right now is to strike partnerships and further engage in the rise of local artists in Africa.