23 Music Industry Statistics: 2026 Sales, Trends & More

The music industry is always evolving. That’s why you should do everything to gather as much information so that you’re never left behind. And this is especially true for those working in the industry.

In this post, you’ll find the latest music industry statistics that you need to know. Given how much the Covid-19 pandemic changed the world, you might want to know how the music industry is faring right now.

Did the pandemic change the way people consume music for the better or worse? 

Let’s find out:

General music industry statistics and facts

The good news is that the global music industry is continuing to grow despite all the challenges it’s facing right now. But it is evolving. There’s still a place for physical media but it’s all about digital music platforms now. 

Even TikTok is finding ways to avoid copyright violations since music is such an integral part of its operations. And experts in the industry are looking at ways to generate more revenue — some are even exploring the possibility of using NFTs.

Here now are some general industry statistics and facts about the music industry.

1. Pop is still the biggest music genre globally.

After its survey of 43,000 respondents, the 2021 IFPI Engaging With Music Report concluded that pop is the most favorite genre globally.

In the top ten are the genres rock, 90s, 80s, soundtracks, hip-hop, r&b, dance, 70s, and soul.

Some countries also enjoy specific music genres. For instance, video game soundtracks are big in Canada. Poland has disco polo. In South Korea, they listen to K-trot. And Japan has Vocaloid.

Source: 2021 IFPI Engaging With Music Report

2. Sony Music signed a licensing deal with TikTok.

TikTok users know just how important music is to the platform. However, with streaming sites like Twitch discouraging their users from using copyrighted music, TikTok creators are second-guessing their use of music.

Well, they can now breathe a sigh of relief thanks to a deal between Sony and TikTok.

TikTok users can now upload videos without having to worry about potential copyright strikes thanks to the social media platform’s licensing deal with Sony Music.

Of course, TikTok users have always used licensed music from their videos. But with the agreement, they’ll be able to avoid any legal ramifications which can encourage users to upload more videos.

Source: Social Media Today

3. Music has a big impact on the UK’s economy.

People cannot underestimate the power that music can have on an economy. The UK knows first-hand just how vital it is. 

The State of the Nation Music Education 2017 report states that the music industry has a big impact on the UK economy. It generates £4.5 billion gross value with £2.6 billion total export revenue.

Full-time employment in the music industry is 14,581 which is up by 3% from 2016.

Source: State of the Nation Music Education 2017

4. The music industry banded together for Blackout Tuesday.

Tragic events can bring us all together. And when the need arises, even the music industry will pull itself together in solidarity. This is exactly what happened after the death of George Floyd.

Record labels, music publishers, and music streaming platforms banded together for Blackout Tuesday, a one-day moratorium on business as usual to protest the death of George Floyd.

The campaign was launched by two black female executives in the recording industry — Brianna Agyemang and Jamila Thomas. They want to empower and protect Black communities by challenging an industry that benefited and profited from Black art.

Source: NPR

5. 2021 was a great year for music.

Despite the pandemic, 2021 was a great year for the music industry. After all, it did beat 2020’s numbers on several key metrics.

The only metric that 2021’s numbers failed to beat 2020 in is global digital song sales and US digital album sales.

The global on-demand audio song stream numbers for 2020 is 2.17 trillion. However, 2021 saw 2.74 trillion streams. That’s a +26.3% change. The total album consumption in the US is also up (802.5 million vs. 893.1 million — an +11.3% change). 

Source: MRC Year-End Report US 2021

6. The music industry has a lot to learn from K-Pop and South Korea.

The South Korean music invasion is not a fluke. And by the looks of things, its music scene could continue to grow in the coming years.

BTS and Blackpink were the biggest artists of 2020. On top of that, K-Pop became a profitable musical export for South Korea. In 2019, K-Pop amounted to $578 million. BTS made $18 million from ticket sales alone.

One of the reasons why the music business is thriving in South Korea is that Korean artists don’t have to deal with the stigma around the idea of being a musician — something Western artists still have to deal with.

In South Korea, there’s no concern over artists being “too produced” or commercialized.

Source: Musically

7. NFTs could be the future of the music industry.

NFTs are not just great for visual artists. According to experts, NFTs could have an impact on the music industry as well.

Merck Mercuriadis—the former manager of Elton John and Beyonce—predicts that non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will play a big role in the music industry in the coming years. He thinks that NFTs can bring a new level of transparency to music royalties.

In his own words: “Someone like Nile Rodgers, whose songs have done incredibly well for 40 years…every six months, (he’ll) get a statement from Sony that’s 10,000-pages long and has billions of microtransactions on it… In the future, with NFT and blockchain, those billions of transactions will be able to come back to you in real-time.”

NFTs can also play a role in collectibles. For example, people can buy digital music or videos for the same price as traditional tour books that are sold in concerts.

Source: Reuters

8. The music industry executives are mostly male and white.

An LA Times report notes that the top executives in the music industry are predominantly male and white. This is somewhat surprising given that according to the leading airplay and streaming charts, the most popular artists are Black and female artists.

The top executives at the top 70 music companies are 86% men and 86% white. And in those 70 companies, only 3 are Black executives. There are only 2 women of color.

Blacks are also underrepresented at live music and promotion companies. Only 12.5% are executives of color and had no Black executives. These companies, however, have a good representation of women in leadership roles at 40.6%.

It’s sad to think that the music industry is still underrepresented at this time. Concrete steps would have to be made to equalize the music scene, especially on the executive level.

Source: LA Times  

Live music and Covid-19 statistics and facts

We all know that Covid-19 severely affected the live music industry. It’s one of the reasons why artists along with event organizers and venue operators had trouble generating income at the height of the pandemic.

But Covid-19 gave rise to new platforms for artists to perform. For instance, performers were able to reach their audience through online games. Artists who performed on games like Fortnite and Roblox garnered millions of views.

Here are a few statistics on live music during the Covid-19 pandemic.

9. The live music industry lost a lot during the pandemic.

The damage that the pandemic caused the live music industry cannot be understated. However, livestreams and virtual concerts did help musicians keep in touch with their fans. 

For instance, Travis Scott performed on the video game Fortnite. The virtual concert attracted 12.3 million fans and boosted streaming numbers by 136%.

Source: BBC

10. The concert business was estimated to lose billions because of Covid-19.

At the start of the pandemic, experts were quick to point out the possible losses that the music industry will incur because of Covid-19 restrictions. It was estimated that the industry will lose billions.

Multiple events were moved to different dates including big ones like Coachella. Everyone was shuffling plans and thinking about how to cope with all the last-minute changes the pandemic forced them to make.

Source: Rolling Stone

11. Live music moved to online games.

With the successes that artists like Travis Scott and Lil Nas X had after performing on games like Fortnite and Roblox, we’ve seen more integrations between music and gaming. This is helping drive the consumption of music catalogs in the United States.

There’s been a weekly lift in on-demand audio streams (up by 4.5 million) during the week of May 27 after Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson held a virtual concert on Roblox. The event was launched to promote the singer’s album Poster Girl.

The same lift in streams also happened in Fortnite during the week ending on April 1 after Kaskade premiered his virtual concert within the game.

Ariana Grande also had a concert on Fortnite. This caused the weekly on-demand streams to lift (52.6 million).

This goes to show that there are still ways to promote and consume music live without resorting to live events. This kind of ingenuity helped artists connect with fans even during the height of the pandemic.

Source: MRC Year-End Report US 2021

Digital/streaming music sales revenue statistics and facts

Music streaming is where the industry is headed. This much is clear after looking at all the data in the last couple of years. It’s responsible for most of the music industry’s revenue. And music streaming apps are getting bigger every year.

These are some of the most interesting statistics and facts about digital music sales.

12. Britain is examining if streaming platforms give fair deals t