Global recorded music revenue by year. Photo Credit: IFPI
Thanks in large part to continued paid streaming gains, the global music industry generated $31.7 billion in recorded revenue, up 6.4%, during 2025. Meanwhile, China, Mexico, and Brazil alike turned in double-digit growth.
These and other figures come from the IFPI’s just-released 2026 Global Music Report. Behind the top-level revenue total, streaming’s contribution rose 7.7% year over year (YoY) to hit a record $22 billion.
And in keeping with well-established trends, paid streaming’s growth percentage (8.8% YoY) outpaced its ad-supported counterpart (4.3% YoY) – with subscription-based listening having made up over 52% of total revenue. All told, there were 837 million “users of subscription accounts” in 2025, per the breakdown.
On the physical side, another solid showing from vinyl (13.7% YoY revenue growth) fueled an 8% category-wide improvement to $5.3 billion. While CD sales have long been slumping, the IFPI pointed to a 3.7% YoY revenue boost for the format during 2025, with a 10.8% YoY spike for physical music video sales to boot.
The remaining core revenue figures are free of shocking stats: Performance rights grew modestly to $2.9 billion; the narrowly defined sync category slipped 2% YoY to $641 million; and permanent downloads once again declined, this time by 5% YoY to about $800 million.
More interestingly, Latin America saw its recorded revenue hike 17.1% YoY in 2025, with 15.2% YoY growth for both MENA (where streaming made up 97.5% of revenue) and sub-Saharan Africa (to $120 million total).
As highlighted, Brazil achieved 14.1% YoY revenue growth en route to becoming the eighth-largest recorded music market in the world, against 13.3% growth for Mexico to secure the top-10 list’s final spot.
But the most significant market-specific takeaway came from China, where recorded revenue jumped 20.1% YoY. This was the biggest 2025 growth percentage of any market in the top 20, and it propelled China to the top-10 list’s fourth position.
Regarding other worthwhile takeaways at the country level, Japan, still the second-largest music market, flipped to 8.9% YoY growth after experiencing a small revenue contraction during 2024. But different established markets – Australia (1.2% YoY revenue growth), Germany (1.7%), France (3.7%), the U.S. (3.3%), and the U.K. (4.8%) – posted single-digit gains.
Elsewhere in its report, the IFPI took aim at streaming fraud and certain AI giants (“bad actors that use music without authorization”).
Unsurprisingly, though, the trade organization in its AI section opted to focus on the majors’ related pacts with Spotify as well as Klay Vision – not the ongoing litigation against Suno (with which only Warner Music has settled) and Udio (Sony Music hasn’t joined its fellow majors in dropping the action).
