A Little Knowledge… #21

Music Ally

We are a knowledge company with over 20 years worth of information, experience and data on the global music business.

Published Jul 5, 2023

📬 BULLETIN NEWS: Goldman Sachs updates its music industry revenue forecasts

Goldman Sachs’ series of ‘Music in the Air’ reports have been widely read and quoted within the music industry in recent years. The latest is out this week:

It has lowered its forecasts for future revenues, but only slightly. It expects the global music market to grow from $92bn in 2023 to $151.4bn in 2030.
Those are gross revenues, but the net revenues (only the share taken by rightsholders for recordings and publishing) are predicted to grow from $65.1bn to $104.4bn.
This is revenues from recordings ($50.1bn in 2030); publishing ($14.7bn in 2030) and live music ($39.5bn in 2030) – put a note in your calendar to check back in 2031 if they were right!
The new report reckons music is 'under-monetised' and thinks streaming price rises and efforts to make more money from superfans will be key to changing that.
It also puts the boot into the traditional model of 'pro rata' streaming payouts, and suggests that generative AI's threats to music are overblown.

Previous 'Music in the Air' reports have been widely quoted by the music industry, not least because they're important in tempting investors to see the market as worth their wallets. You can read the full article here.

👉 Music Ally archive: Market Data

📻 PODCAST: A Music Ally Focus... focus

In our Music Ally Focus podcast our editor Joe Sparrow breaks down important stories with expert guests in about 25 minutes. Recent episodes have explored a range of important topics:

Adam Webb from FanFair Alliance, a UK-based organisation campaigning against industrial-scale online ticket-touting, joined Joe to talk about the state of ticketing in the UK, and what they believe needs to change. Adam also discussed speculative ticketing, and why he thinks it is harmful.
London songwriter Ines Dunn has writing credits in songs like Maisie Peters' "Not Another Rockstar" and is one of the first to be featured by Spotify's RADAR programme. She talked to Joe about her experiences, and what the support of a global DSP does for your career.
Rebecca Berman is SVP of International at Concord, a large independent company that operates in music publishing, a label, and in acquisition. Rebecca talked to Joe about the potential in exploding markets like Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America - and what the consequences may be for the established music industry.

👉 Find them all here: Music Ally Focus Podcast

🤔 A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA...

And finally… our daily Bulletin newsletter is loved by subscribers for its instant industry analysis - but secretly, the part they like most is the ‘A Little Something Extra’ section at the bottom of the email. Here's a few of the best recent links:

'Dave! Dave! Dave! Stop the car! I'm gonna be sick!'
A helpful use for AI: not getting you sacked! Angry Email Translator will turn your furious e-missives into more diplomatic language.
A world with thousands of Dolly Partons can only be a good thing.