Photo Credit: IFPI
The EU added €470 million in recorded music revenues in 2024—the largest growth of any region worldwide, up 9.1% year-over-year.
A new IFPI report illustrates how rapidly the recorded music industry is growing in the European Union—but the American recorded music industry is still nearly double the size. Nevertheless, the EU saw the largest absolute growth of any region worldwide in 2024, reaching €5.7 billion ($6.2 billion) with a 9.1% increase from 2023.
That growth was driven by a “strong rise in subscribers and price increases by streaming platforms” and was more than double that of the United States. It also surpassed the combined revenue growth of the U.S., China, and Brazil.
While the EU added the most revenue by dollar last year, the world’s fastest growing region by percentage in 2024 was the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), which was up 22.8% year-over-year. Following MENA closely were Sub-Saharan Africa (22.6%) and Latin America (22.5%), respectively.
Meanwhile, the fastest revenue growth in Europe came from Sweden (30.2%), followed by Romania (26.9%), Hungary (23.9%), and Poland (22.3%). Notably, Sweden’s revenue jump was due to a one-off payment on a private copying levy that spanned multiple years, according to IFPI. Excluding that, Sweden’s growth was around 6.5%.
Conversely, the slowest growing markets were Germany (4.1%), the UK (up 4.9%, and notably not part of the EU but was still included in IFPI’s metrics), and Denmark (5.6%). The EU now accounts for more than a fifth of global recorded music revenues, thanks in part to a “surge in homegrown talent.”
Despite the EU’s growth, the IFPI noted that Europe is lagging behind overall compared to other developed markets on the key metric of music streaming subscriber penetration. Streaming contributed 77.4% of recorded music revenues in the EU, but the number of streaming subscriptions was well behind other markets at only 25%, compared to 46% in the UK and 52% in the United States.
“Europe is a powerhouse of musical creativity and cultural diversity,” said IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley. “This success is no accident—it’s the result of years of investment, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to artists.”
“Record labels have played a central role in building this thriving ecosystem, helping artists grow at home, and reach fans around the world. But to stay ahead, we need strong, forward-looking policies that protect human creativity and make AI work in the service of music, not the other way around,” added Oakley.
AI is a major theme in the IFPI report. The trade group urges governments to implement the European Union’s AI Act, which includes the ability of rights holders to opt out of having their works used to train AI. It also mandates transparency requirements for AI developers in the materials used to train their models. But some rights holders’ groups, including the IFPI, have cautioned that the law’s implementation has been weaker than anticipated.
“It is now essential that the European Commission takes active and effective steps to ensure truly meaningful compliance with the AI Act—consistent with the spirit and letter of the law enacted by the EU,” wrote Oakley.
The IFPI’s report also found a steady increase in artists’ share of revenue over the past decade—at least those under the Big Three (Sony, Universal, and Warner). In 2024, artists took 35.5% of digital, physical, and sync revenues at the three recording majors, up from 31% in 2016.
