A historic year.
In 2021, global music sales peaked at nearly $26 billion according to the latest figures released by Ifpi (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry).
In the space of a year, this represents a leap of 18.5%.
Never before seen, these figures exceed the previous record of 24 billion dollars recorded in 1999. Between 2014, when the music industry was at its worst, and today, the turnover of the sector has almost doubled.
The market has been able to count on formidable cash machines, like the Korean K-Pop group BTS, which remains at the top of the world's top 10 best-selling artists, as in 2020. Ditto for the American artist Taylor Swift who retains her second place.
After several years of absence, the English singer Adele, whose album
30
was released in November, made a sensational debut in the ranking.
She took third place on the podium, just ahead of Canadian rapper Drake, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, and Justin Bieber.
CD and vinyl sales increase for the first time in 20 years
Market growth was largely driven by paid streaming revenue, up 22% to $12.3 billion.
Streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, Amazon Music, Apple Music now total 523 million paying users worldwide.
Adding revenue from ad-supported streaming, the overall revenue for this segment is nearly $17 billion (+24%).
Now, streaming accounts for 65% of total global music revenue.
Beyond that, and for the first time in 20 years, sales of CDs and vinyl recorded an increase of 16% and now generate 5 billion dollars in turnover.
The vogue for vinyl records continues, with sales up 51.3%, after growth of 25.9% in 2020. For example, an artist like Adèle sold more than 860 000 pancakes...