😮 South Africa Alone is Responsible for 77% of Recorded Music Revenue in Sub-Saharan Africa

IFPI, the body representing the global recorded music industry, has published its annual Global Music Report. Per usual, it dives into performance of the global recorded music industry scene in the past year (2023).

As expected, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the fastest-growing music market, with a YoY growth rate of 20%. In 2023, Sub-Saharan Africa saw a 24.7% increase in music revenues, primarily driven by the 24.5% increase in paid streaming revenues.

One of the highlights for me is South Africa fortifying its position as the largest music market in Sub-Saharan Africa, as it contributes 77.0% of revenues from the region, courtesy of its growth rate of 19.9% [in paid steaming maybe?].

I did a light analysis of how South Africans and Nigerians stream on Spotify, but as we may know by now; revenue generation is always a whole ‘nother discourse.

Middle East & North Africa (MENA)

Streaming revenues continued to dominate the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets, comprising 98.4% of total revenue share in the region. Despite a slower rate of increase compared to the previous year's 26.8% jump, total MENA revenues still saw a rise of 14.4% in 2023.

Calm Down…for what??

The IFPI Global Single Chart measures digital format singles across a calendar year, including paid subscription streaming, ad-supported streaming, and single-track downloads. So, another worthy highlight, which is not particularly surprising is Rema's "Calm Down" featuring Selena Gomez being the second-best performing song globally with 1.89 billion Global subscription streams equivalent.

Overall Global Performance

The global recorded music revenues increased by 10.2% YoY in 2023, reaching $28.6 billion. This marks the ninth consecutive year of growth for the global music market. Streaming accounts for 67.3% of music industry revenue, with subscription streaming revenues leading at 48.9%. This implies that subscription streaming revenues likely reached $14 billion in 2023.

This increase can be attributed to subscription price hikes by Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music/Premium over the past year in select markets. According to IFPI, about 667 million people are now paying for music through premium subscriptions.

Also, there was growth in physical revenue, rising by 13.4% YoY to $5.1 billion in 2023. Performance rights revenues also rose 9.5% YoY, reaching $2.7 billion.

Like 2022, the world’s Top 10 music markets remain the same in 2023. They are: