A festival capable of intercepting the tastes of young people and of photographing the trends of a record market increasingly driven by streaming and social media, thus becoming an important driver of growth: the revolution brought to Sanremo by Amadeus is summarized by Fimi, the Federation of the music industry, in the report on scenarios and prospects of Italian music which takes stock on the eve of the start of the 74th edition (6-10 February).
In recent years, Italian music has experienced an important generational change: between 2019 and 2023 the average age of the artists in the top ten dropped by 18%, going from over 36 years to 29.9 in 2023. At the same time, the casts of latest editions of Sanremo has been increasingly in line with the official Fimi/GfK sales charts: for three consecutive years the artists who took first place for the best-selling album in the annual chart were present, with Rkomi (Taxi Driver , 2021), Lazza (Sirio, 2022) and Geolier (The courage of children, 2023).
On the other hand, the podium of the best-selling singles of 2023 is entirely occupied by the songs competing at the last edition of the Festival.
The choices made by Amadeus for 2024 confirm the trend of approaching the market: this is in fact - Fimi continues - the edition with the highest number of platinum certifications obtained by the competing singers: 512 (+50% compared to 2023) .
In retrospect, the songs presented at the last eleven editions of Sanremo have achieved 184 platinum records, of which 121 went to the songs that participated in the Festival under the artistic direction of Amadeus.
Streaming listeners of the songs competing at the last festival exceeded one billion plays for the first time: +23% compared to the 2022 edition and +198% compared to the 2020 edition. "These are very important results, which speak volumes alone", comments the CEO of Fimi, Enzo Mazza.
"Amadeus chose to take a risk, going towards artists who were successful on the market, he was able to seize a huge opportunity. And many of these young people no longer have those prejudices about the festival that perhaps stars of the past had."
From this point of view the artistic director "is in fact competing against himself", he underlines.
"The future? It's like having Verstappen driving a Formula 1 car: who wouldn't want to keep him?".
Thanks to the relaunch of the festival, continues Mazza, "the average age of the spectators has dropped, a very important figure also for Rai; the attention of the public has grown, even those who attend the concerts, setting in motion an induced it reverberates on everything", notes the CEO of the Federation of the Music Industry,
however, also claiming "the strong investments" made by the record companies on the songs and artists competing which have a positive impact on various economic segments linked to the Festival, from TV itself to hospitality, through live music, the publishing world and authorial and the media ecosystem.
However, the question of costs remains open, "which have become unsustainable, it is no longer possible to cover the Sanremo week with contributions from Rai. Outlays for hotels, staff, and increasingly numerous artists have exploded, not to mention the guests of the cover evening. Viale Mazzini - concludes the CEO of Fimi - will have to intervene economically for next year".
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