New Report Finds Music Has Reached Movie Box Office Records

For the first time, the value of global music copyright has surpassed the amount generated by cinema 

According to a new report from Will Page, the former Chief Economist at both Spotify and the UK collection society PRS for Music, the global value of music copyright reached $45.5 billion in 2023 — a growth of 11% year on year and of 26% since 2021. 

As published on Page’s website, Pivotal Economics, global music copyright stood at $25 billion in 2014. Now, that figure is more than the $33.9 billion that cinema generated in 2023, Deadline reported. 

Page explained that when the figure is next calculated for 2024, the copyright may have doubled within the last decade. “Make no mistake: it’s boom time,” he said.

MusicBusiness emphasized that music copyright is now worth around 38% more than the cinema business — a reversal from the figures calculated in 2019. 

Of the $45.5 billion in music, $28.5 billion was made up of recorded music revenues, $12.9 billion was brought in by collective management organizations (CMO), and $4.2 billion involved direct publisher income. Record labels grew at the fastest annual rate of 12%.  

As depicted in the figures in the image below, 63% of 2023’s total revenue is going to artists and labels, and 37% is going to songwriters, publishers, and their CMOs. 

Additionally, vinyl records will see labels receive $1 billion by the end of 2024 in the U.S. alone and are set to soon overtake CDs. 

As stated by Page, the increase in music revenue is influenced by three major tipping points. Firstly, live performance generates more royalties than the music being played as background listening in hotels and malls. 

Second, digital collections are now exceeding that of the more traditional broadcast and radio formats — 10 years ago, digital made up around 5% of collections, while broadcast made up half.

Lastly, publishers are collecting more from the digital market through all forms of direct licensing.

Currently, as the top music exporter, the U.S. exported 2.4 times as much music as it imported in 2023. In second place, Sweden exported 1.8 times as much. The figure in the UK is 1.6 times, while the ratio in South Korea was 1.0, as calculated by revenue flows between CMOs.

“Cinema’s pain has been the streamers’ gain as we shift attention from the screen to our sofas,” Page wrote. “Since 2010, streamers have gone from zero to a $100bn‑hero. In pre‑pandemic 2019, the two were neck-and-neck. Then Streaming skyrocketed, while cinema struggled to recover.

“If the [music] industry can up its measurement-game, there’s a double‑tailwind that’ll drive the global value of copyright even higher,” he added. “First, (re)emerging markets will catch up with rich ones and second, as they do, they’ll get more measurement-attention. More value, and more of it being tracked. Buckle up. This business is changing as fast as it is growing.”

Page’s full report can be viewed here.

(PC: Ivan Samkov)