Recorded music exceeds €500m turnover at close of 2023 in Spain

13 March 2024 - Press release

• Revenues keep accounting 2 figure increases for the third year in a row, adding 12.33% to 2022 numbers
• Sales of music contribute with 465 million euros to total, with a 15.50% increase
• 40% of population use music audio platforms
• In 2023, the number of premium audio platforms subscribers has risen to more than 6 million users

PROMUSICAE announces Spanish figures of recorded music revenues in 2023 

2023 have been yet another good year for the recorded music market with total revenues, at year-end, of 520 million euros, representing 12.33 % growth compared to 462.9 million reached in 2022. These figures open the economic balance published today by PROMUSICAE, the organisation gathering more than 95% of the Spanish recording industry, that details the sales of music in digital and physical format (at estimated retail value), synchronisations (use of music for advertising or audio-visual works) and revenues derived from the management of producers and artists' intellectual property rights. 88.6% of this global figure generated from sales of music in general, with 465 million that reached all-time highs from 2006, although still 37% below 2001 levels.

Digital market already represents 86% of music consumed in Spain (403.5 million) in a year when physical sales grew regarding 2022 (adding 62 million).

Streaming set the tone of the music market
One more year, the growing trend of music consumption via streaming remains in the Spanish market in 2023. From 403.5 million euros coming to the industry from digital sales, almost 99% stem from streaming, representing 398.6 million euros. Of them, audio platforms provide 330 million compared to 69 million coming from video (far below in this case from its share of music consumption that, according to IFPI's Engaging with Music 2023, means 30% in our country). 

Therefore, both audio and video digital music consumption grows regarding 2022, 17 and 15 percent respectively. These data represent that more 19 million Spaniards used audio streaming services during 2023; and from them, 6 million did through premium subscriptions, with the same additional benefits and advantages provided by music platforms to this kind of subscribers, 15% more than in 2022. Growth pace remains sustained, confirming the public's interest for recorded music. Despite the mentioned good figures, in Spain we are still far from the shares of premium subscribers shown by other countries with more mature and aware markets.

The rest of the digital market comes from permanent downloads and sales of mobile products that, although yet declining, provide 5 million euros all together.

 

In love with vinyl
Physical market has given positive figures in 2023, endorsing, among other details, that vinyl keeps providing a good deal of the revenues. There has been growth again in 2023, as has happened in the last decade, with a 19% rise in revenues that keeps it with over 56% of the physical market turnover, generating 35 million euros value compared to 26 provided by CD, almost the same figure of the year before, that now represents 42% of physical product sales. 

In units, although the difference is lower and lower, there are still more CD sold than vinyl (2.3 million units versus 2.1 million vinyl dispatched in 2023), but the public is still willing to pay for this attractive format for all public, placing in the first position of the Spain annual vinyl chart the Taylor Swift album 1989 (Taylor s version), with Rosal a's Motomami in the second position and giving also place in Top 10 to works for adult generations such as The Dark Side of The Moom by Pink Floyd, and The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds in positions 9 and 10, respectively.

The physical market grows 10% compared to 2022 and exceeds 62 million euros this year.

Piracy continues
Despite the enormous accessibility to consume recorded music legally today, according to details from the IFPI Engaging with Music 2023, in Spain there are still 31% of people who use unauthorised or unlicensed ways to listen to or download music, which keeps placing us above the global average. It remains necessary, therefore, to keep working from the industry and the public authorities to increase the youth awareness of consuming music legally and paying for it.

Other sources of market revenues
The revenues collected by the industry regarding intellectual property rights have provided 50 million euros during 2023; and even though the figure has decreased 11% regarding 2022, it is worth recalling that last year's figure was somehow distorted by the recovery of pending adjustments for private copying.

In section other sources of revenues synchronisations of music for audiovisual productions and advertising sustains, providing 4.2 million euros representing a 30% increase compared to 2022.

Industry assessments
The consolidation of streaming as a way of music consumption confirms in 2023. From the recorded music industry, in words of PROMUSICAE's President, Antonio Guisasola, "we make a very positive assessment of the 2023 year's closure, with big hopes in the reasonable advance of the streaming model that brings to the consumer at a modest price all recorded music created thanks to the sum of artists' talent and the work, effort and investment of all the recording industry of our country, in a year that we close overcoming 2006 levels, and yet with a way ahead to reach the remaining 37% to get to reach the level of 2001, last year prior the crisis due to piracy". In any case, he adds that “Although trends are very good, our potential of growth is hampered by the scarce monetisation and the huge presence of free consumption models that distort our market and place us far from our surrounding countries with more advanced consumption habits. Besides, these countries have stronger public incentives and support for music production, which determines that, if we want our music to compete on an equal footing, we must count on the decisive backing of the public sector, with mechanisms such as tax incentives (from which other cultural industries already enjoy, but not recorded music and the video clips production), aids to phonographic production for emerging talent, and the encouragement of legal consumption with initiatives such as the cultural bonus, as well as a determined support plan for internationalisation to achieve that the Spanish repertoire can out-stand and make profit form the relevance of music in Spanish all over the world, exceeding the meagre 2% that Spanish music represents in Latin markets (not considering the Spanish market itself). Guisasola ends saying that "these aids, together with the enormous compromise of the recording industry that invests more than 30% of its benefits in marketing and development for its artists, with worldwide investments, according to IFPI details, of more than 7.1 billion dollars in these concepts through all processes related to the phonographic production, and the commercialisation and promotion of works produced, shall allow us to take the definite plunge and overcome, as already happened in other countries, all-time highs very soon".