It’s fair to say that the global music business felt a little glum last week.
It would have taken a foolhardy exec to pop open the Tattinger after the RIAA confirmed on Thursday (August 29) that the largest recorded music market in the world, the US, only grew industry revenues by 4% YoY in the first half of 2024.
Total streaming subscription accounts in the US grew by just 2.7% YoY in the same period.
But what’s this?
One of the world’s most commercially exciting – and fastest-growing – markets had no trouble bouncing up by double digits in H1 2024.
In fact, it substantially accelerated its trade revenue growth in the first six months of this year vs. its growth in 2023.
Time to pop that Tattinger cork after all?
The chart above has been updated to correct the dates on the X axis
We are, of course, talking about Brazil – Latin America’s largest domestic music market.
According to IFPI data, Brazil was the globe’s ninth-biggest recorded music market in 2023, growing its annual trade revenues by 13.4% YoY to over $570 million.
Now, Brazil’s local trade body, Pro Musicá Brasil, has issued stats for the first six months of 2024 (H1 2024), and they’re mighty impressive.
According to Pro Musicá’s numbers, revenues captured by Brazil’s recorded music industry grew by21% YoY in H1 2024, reaching BRL 1.442 billion in the period.
That’s equivalent to USD $257 million at current exchange rates.
(Quick explainer: Pro Musicá’s numbers include digital and physical music revenues, but don’t include sync and performance/neighbouring rights. This explains why, even with 21% YoYgrowth, the trade body’s revenues are less than half the IFPI total for 2023. The IFPI‘s numbers include both sync and performance rights, which jointly contributed around 12% of Brazil’s official annual trade revenue haul last year.)
With just digital and physical music revenues taken into account, streaming makes up over 99% of Brazil’s domestic recorded music market.
And so it was in the first half of 2024: the country’s recorded music business generated BRL 1.430 billion (USD $255m) from streaming in H1 2024, up 21.1% YoY.
Within that figure, subscription streaming contributed BRL 995 million (USD $177m), up 28.4% YoY, while ad-supported streaming platforms contributed BRL 436 million ($78m), up 6.6% YoY.
Total physical sales weighed in at just BRL 9 million (USD $1.6m) in H1 2024, making up barely 0.6% of the market’s total trade revenue.
“The increase of 21% in the digital and physical receipts of the sector directly reflects the efforts and investments made by [recorded music] companies, both in the production of national musical content, as well as in the marketing, promotion and development of the career of thousands of Brazilian artists.”
Paulo Rosa, Pro Musicá
Paulo Rosa, President of Pro-Música, said Brazil’s industry numbers in H1 2024 showed the “predominance of music distribution on music streaming platforms in operation in Brazil, following a global trend verified over the last 10-plus years”.
He added (translated): “The increase of 21% in the digital and physical receipts of the sector directly reflects the efforts and investments made by [recorded music] companies, both in the production of national musical content, as well as in the marketing, promotion and development of the career of thousands of Brazilian artists.”
According to Pro Musicá Brasil, Lauana Prado’s Me Leva Pra Casa / Escrito Nas Estrelas / Saudade (Ao Vivo) was the biggest streaming hit in Brazil in the first half of 2024. The record is distributed by Universal Music Group.
At No.2 on Pro Musicá’s list of streaming hits in H1 2024 was Barulho Do Foguete (Ao Vivo) by Zé Neto & Cristiano, released via Som Livre.
The US is the globe’s biggest music market. But, of course, it is not the world – and there is still plenty of growth potential for music streaming subscriptions in multiple key international markets.
Indeed, according to IFPI stats, the US market made up around 38% of the total wholesale revenues of the global recorded music industry (USD $28.6 billion) in 2023.
