Luminate releases 2023 midyear music report, providing a data-driven look at the state of the global music industry

13 July 2023 - Press release

Global On-Demand Music Streams Up 30.8%, Surpassing 3.3 Trillion

Physical Album Sales in the U.S. Up 13.3% Fueled By a 21.7% Increase in Vinyl Sales 

World Music Popularity Growing As Two in Five (40%) of all U.S. Listeners Consume Music in a Non-English Language  

  

Today, Luminate, the entertainment industry's most essential data partner, released its 2023 Midyear Music Report, providing a quantitative look at the top trends defining the music industry so far this year from both a U.S. and global perspective. In a year where artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated industry discourse, dynamic pricing has hit the headlines and local language music is topping the charts, Luminate’s data documents the most notable insights about the state of the music industry in the first six months of 2023.

The report also spotlights the success of Country music’s Morgan Wallen and global superstar Taylor Swift who top the Midyear Album Charts from Billboard; Luminate (formerly operating as Nielsen Music/SoundScan) has been fueling the Billboard Charts since 1991.

Alongside the release of the report, Luminate announced the forthcoming launch of its new international music data offering, which provides country-level streaming data for 47 new countries in the company’s industry-leading database. Speaking on the release of the report and the new international data offering, Rob Jonas, CEO, Luminate, said,

“Verified data is essential to understand the who, where and why of shifts in cultural trends, especially given the ever-growing global nature of the music industry and the continued disruption and growth of music engagement at large. As laid out in Luminate’s Midyear Music Report released today, the story of music in the first half of 2023 is defined by more empowered Super Fans with a growing hunger to support their favorite artists, more engagement with non-English music in the U.S. and more content being uploaded on a daily basis, which creates more opportunities and challenges. The key word here is “more,” which leads to the need for a more focused and insights-fueled understanding of worldwide music listener habits. We are especially looking forward to Luminate's new international data offering expanding the entertainment industry’s understanding of existing and forthcoming trends outside of the US market in the coming quarters.”

 

Streaming reaches record highs, powered by growth in emerging markets

In March 2023, Luminate data revealed the global music industry surpassed one trillion streams. This milestone was reached in only three months – a full month earlier than in 2022 – and reflects the continuing strong growth of digital music consumption. The midyear report shows:

●      Global On-Demand Streams (audio + video combined) are up +30.8% from midyear 2022 to 3.3 trillion.

●      Global On-Demand Audio Streams (audio only, no video) are up +22.9% from midyear 2022 to 2.0 trillion.

●      Outside of the U.S. and Canada, On-Demand audio and video streaming continue to grow apace in Asia (107%), South Africa (83%) and Latin America (70%).

 

US music consumption is up across digital and physical formats

A closer look at the world’s largest recorded music market – the U.S. – shows growing engagement with streaming services and the enduring appeal of physical formats with increases in sales of CDs, vinyl and cassettes.

●      U.S. On-Demand Streams (audio + video combined) are up +15.0% from midyear 2022 to 713.5 billion.

●      U.S. On-Demand Audio Streams (audio only, no video) are up +13.5% from midyear 2022 to 616.5 billion.

●      U.S. Album Sales (physical + digital combined) are up 7.9% from midyear 2022 with growth across all physical formats (CD, vinyl and cassette).

●      U.S. Physical Album Sales are up 13.3%, powered by the growth in U.S. Vinyl Sales of 21.7% from midyear 2022.

●      Total share of album consumption accounted for by Catalog (i.e. music older than 18 months) in the U.S. is up +0.4% from midyear 2022 to 72.8%.

 

The report also highlights three key trends in the consumption and creation of music, focusing on the power and profile of super fans, the growing dominance of non-English language music and the proliferation of new music being created and added to streaming services globally.

 

Big spenders: Super Fans, Millennials and Gen Z spend most, while K-Pop fans keep it physical

For the first time, Luminate provides a snapshot of a typical “super fan”, exploring the trends and traits of their fandom and estimating their purchasing power by age and genre.

●      Super Fans account for one in seven (15%) of the general population of music listeners aged 13+ in the U.S. They are more likely to be at the forefront of music discovery, are keen to connect with artists on a more personal level and like to be part of a fan-driven community.

●      Super Fans spend +80% more on music each month than the average US music listener, whilst Millennials and Gen Z fans spend +22% and +13% more per month respectively.

●      Purchasing power differs between genres; Afropop/beats fans spend +121% more on music per month whilst K-Pop and EDM fans spend +75% and +63% respectively.

●      K-Pop fans in the U.S. are +69% more likely to purchase a vinyl record in the next 12 months compared to other major genre fans, whilst almost 1 in 4 (23%) K-Pop fans have purchased a cassette in the past 12 months.

●      In the week where Taylor Swift tickets go on sale for the star’s Eras Tour, Luminate data reveals that the high price of concert tickets now out-ranks Covid-19 as the No. 1 concern among U.S. music listeners when considering attending a live music event. The average concert goer spends 40% more on concerts in May 2023 than in September 2022.

 

Glocalisation: Non-English language music on the rise, but Country music bucks the trend

“Glocalisation” is on the rise, with more local language music rising to prominence on digital platforms. Country music, however, is bucking this trend with growth in new international markets.

●      According to Luminate’s Music 360 research data from Q2 2023, 40% of U.S. listeners listen to music in a non-English language.

●      The share of English language content in Top 10K US Total On-Demand Streaming (Audio & Video) tracks is down -4.2% since 2021, while the share of Spanish language content has grown +3.6%.

●      Globally, the top five languages in the Top 10k On-Demand Streaming (Audio & Video) tracks are English, Spanish, Hindi, Korean and Portuguese.

●      Country music is reaching new heights in international markets; the top markets for the genre outside of North America, UK and Australia are Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Mexico, and Germany, all of which are not primarily English-speaking territories.

 

Records: AI generated music makes waves and 20m additional tracks uploaded to streaming services

Luminate data reveals that more music is being created and made available online than ever before, with AI set to facilitate and scale music production and distribution to new levels.

●      On average, 112,000 new music tracks are being added to streaming services each day, representing a 28% increase from 93,400 per day in 2022. This is based on the number of International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC) being registered to identify new recordings on digital platforms.

●      There were 20.2 million new ISRCs created in the first half of 2023, pacing ahead of 2022, which saw a total of 34.1 million during the full calendar year.

●      The AI-generated song “Heart on My Sleeve” from Ghostwriter, which was composed to generate soundalike vocals that emulate Drake and The Weeknd, spread quickly to global markets and received more than 30,000 streams per day in a two-week period in four ex-U.S. countries - Australia, Canada, Germany and the UK- urging the music industry to pay attention to AI’s global impact.

 

The new international data offering launched today joins the Company’s current U.S. and Canada-level data sets, along with its global (inclusive of 40+ ex: U.S. and Canada markets) streaming and digital song sales data set that launched in 2018. The news follows the recent announcement of Luminate’s new global data platform, operating now in beta, with the aforementioned U.S., Canada and global music data. The new country-specific data is set to be incorporated into the new platform in the coming months, but to accommodate those in need of that data earlier, for essential business planning, it will be available to access later this summer. To learn more, visit luminatedata.com to request a demo.