Germany’s recorded music commerce group says it nonetheless sees potential upside forward, regardless of a slowdown within the progress charge of recorded music gross sales.
The German Music Trade Affiliation (BVMI) says recorded music gross sales within the first half of 2025 hit EUR €1.157 billion (USD $1.36 billion on the common alternate charge for Q2 2025),on a retail foundation. That’s up 1.4% from the identical interval a 12 months earlier.
On condition that Germany’s year-on-year inflation charge has been working at round 2% in latest months, this means that, on an inflation-adjusted foundation, retail music gross sales shrank barely in H1.
The most recent numbers signify a big slowdown from H1 2024, when recorded gross sales rose by 7.6% YoY.
The H1 2025 numbers had been considerably stronger for digital music gross sales particularly (streaming and a la carte downloads), which rose 3.9% YoY.
Nonetheless, that progress was partly offset by a 13.2% YoY decline in bodily gross sales (vinyl and CDs), with CD gross sales dropping 20.1% YoY.
The numbers mirror a common malaise in Germany’s economic system, which has stagnated up to now a number of years primarily as a consequence of excessive power costs. Nonetheless, after near-zero progress in 2023 and 2024, there have been indicators of a pickup just lately. The nation’s actual (inflation-adjusted) GDP grew 0.3% in Q2 2025.
Dr. Florian Drücke, Chairman & CEO of BVMI, stays optimistic concerning the recorded music enterprise going ahead.
“As an business, we’re presently in an thrilling section in which there’s nonetheless potential for progress, even in developed markets reminiscent of Germany,” he mentioned in a press release on Thursday (July 24).
“On this surroundings characterised by enormous technological leaps, our business is especially reliant on European legislators keeping track of the authorized framework for future digital enterprise areas. This presently consists of the constant continuation of the trail taken with the AI Regulation with a purpose to allow the digital license enterprise.”
“We’re presently in an thrilling section in which there’s nonetheless potential for progress, even in developed markets reminiscent of Germany.”
Dr. Florian Drücke, BVMI
Giant components of the European Union’s AI Act will come into pressure in early August, and earlier this month the European Fee unveiled a voluntary Code of Follow for AI corporations, designed to assist them keep away from regulatory burdens from the Act.
The Code’s ideas embody tips on how AI corporations acquire copyrighted content material on-line, requiring them to not circumvent restrictions positioned by rightsholders on web-scraping of knowledge. The Code additionally requires them to keep away from accumulating materials from copyright-infringing sources reminiscent of digital piracy web sites.
Most of the most outstanding AI corporations, together with Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI, have dedicated to abiding by the Code, though Fb and Instagram proprietor Meta Platformshas mentioned it received’t signal on.
Some points of the EU’s AI rules have confirmed controversial with rightsholders, as an illustration the “opt-out” mechanism that requires copyright homeowners to explicitly state that they don’t need their content material for use to coach AI.
That regulation final 12 months prompted each Sony Music Group and Warner Music Group to ship out letters to AI builders informing them that they’re opting out of getting their supplies used to coach AI.
German performing rights assortment society GEMA has been on the forefront of music business our bodies calling for a licensing market that will allow artists and music corporations to be paid for the usage of their music in coaching AI.
“We’re ready to barter honest phrases of use and remuneration fashions with the AI corporations,” GEMA’s Christina von Gemmingen-Hornbergmentioned final 12 months.Music Enterprise Worldwide
