Italy’s paid music streaming subscription revenues jump 23% as local acts completely dominate charts

Italy’s music industry continues to grow by double digits, driven by a 23% YoY increase in revenues from paid music subscriptions.

During the first half of 2024, paid music subscriptions in Italy brought in EUR €111.8 million (approx. USD $120.9 million at the average exchange rate in h1 2024).

The number of paid subscribers reached around 5 million during the period.

Overall music sales, including downloads, physical media, and synchronization, came in at €202.6 million ($219 million), an increase of 15.1% YoY, according to data from the Industrial Federation of Italian Music (FIMI).

Even as paid subscriptions showed rapid growth, revenue from ad-supported subscriptions fell by 1.1% YoY, to €28.2 million ($30.5 million).

FIMI cited numbers from market intelligence firm GfK, showing that total music streams in the Italian market grew by 31.7% YoY during the period, to more than 46 billion streams.

Music revenues from video streaming also saw pronounced growth, up 23.5% YoY to €24.2 million ($26.2 million).

Physical media sales grew by 5.7% YoY to €29.5 million ($31.9 million), driven entirely by a 16% YoY increase in vinyl sales, while CD sales dropped 10.6% YoY.

Noting a “trend that has been underway for a few years,” FIMI noted that the music industry in Italy has come to be dominated by local acts, with all of the top 10 albums and singles in H1 2024 coming from Italian artists.

That’s “thanks to the investments of the record labels into a total[ly] new generation of artists,” FIMI Managing Director Enzo Mazza told MBW, noting that Italy’s music market has now seen double digit growth for four straight semesters.

He also attributed the strength of Italian acts to a tax credit available for investment into recorded music, and noted that the music industry recently secured a new tax credit for the production of music videos, which covers up to 40% of the cost of music video production up to €80,000 per video.

Italy has been one of the beneficiaries of the trend of “glocalization” – the phenomenon of music streaming services making local acts more popular in their home countries, while at the same time giving them greater access to audiences around the world.

“We expect this positive trend in growth for the rest of 2024.”

Enzo Mazza, FIMI

Research earlier this year from economists Will Page and Chris Dalla Riva showed that Italy – along with Germany and France – leads Europe in the glocalization trend, with 75% or more of music streams in those countries coming from local acts in the local language.

The strength of Italy’s music market in H1 2024 comes hot off the heels of a banner 2023, when Italy saw its music sales grow by 18.8%, one of the strongest numbers in the world and nearly double the 10.2% recorded worldwide by the IFPI in its Global Music Report.

That was enough to ensure Italy’s position as the third largest music market in the European Union, behind Germany and France.

Mazza said that, with Italy still lagging the major Western markets in relative number of subscribers, “we expect this positive trend in growth for the rest of 2024.”Music Business Worldwide