Including market segments such as live music, digital music as well as podcasts and radio, the audio industry sector has undergone major developments over the last couple of years. The market for music downloads has consistently decreased over the last years reaching 2.7 U.S. dollars average revenue per user in 2020, compared to 27.5 dollars for music streaming and 15.9 dollars for digital music. The increasing importance of streaming and digital consumption of audio content is estimated to continue while the role of downloads is predicted to steadily decrease. Overall, the audio market's diversity is likely to deepen following the progressing changes in the way music and audio content is consumed.
Digital music consumption is becoming increasingly important for the audio market as the revenue driver. The market generating the highest revenue within the segment is the United States, at 6.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, followed by China with 1.6 billion dollars. Live music on the other hand, once very popular, has suffered a blow due to the global pandemic, with the number of ticket sales for live concerts dropping from 57 million in 2019 to just over 13 million tickets in 2020.
Number of music tour tickets sold worldwide 2011-2020Music consumption has significantly changed due to streaming services. In 2019, the music streaming revenue increased by close to 23 percent, accounting for 56 percent of the total recorded music revenue. These figures are set to grow further, surpassing 21 billion dollars by 2025. On the other hand, music downloads revenue shows a downhill trend, with a revenue of two billion U.S. dollars in 2020 declining to below 1.5 billion in 2025.
Digital Music - Revenue worldwideOverall, the live music industry is growing with revenues in 2019 surpassing 28 billion U.S. dollars. Due to the pandemic this number plummeted in 2020 to approximately ten billion but is likely to recover after the crisis, with revenues being estimated to reach 19 billion in 2021 and coming to pre-pandemic level in 2022. Before the events of 2020, live music industry had been steadily growing and is predicted to continue on this path, closing in on 31 billion dollars by 2024.
Most successful music tours worldwideWith more of the audio entertainment moving online, industry leaders have developed through content distribution. In 2019, Spotify was the most popular music streaming platform with 35 percent of consumers using the service. The Swedish streaming giant now outranks Apple Music which claimed 19 percent of subscribers and Amazon with its 15 percent subscriber share. In the third quarter of 2020, Spotify demonstrated the company’s market dominance by reaching 320 million active subscribers.
Spotify MAUs worldwideThe audio category presents wide-ranging data on global audio entertainment. It covers all aspects of the music industry, including key financial figures on leading record labels, the concert business, music awards, and global music industry revenue.
Within this sector, Statista offers sales figures for physical music and highlights trends in the digital music market via data on streaming revenues, music downloads, and the most popular streaming services worldwide. Insights into listening behavior and global audience preferences are further complemented with statistics on radio stations and use, podcast consumption, and overall listening times.
Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)
Mon - Fri, 11:30am - 10pm (IST)
Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5:30pm (JST)
Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)
Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)
