Luminate is the watcher of all music consumption in Canada and the U.S. and has simply issued its year-end report for Canada after sorting by its 500 verified sources and analyzing greater than 20 trillion (sure, trillion) information factors.
On common, 99,000 new songs are uploaded to streaming music platforms day by day (down from a median of 103,500 in 2023), which works out to roughly a million monthly. The present universe of obtainable digital songs (and all streamers share the identical catalogue) is 202 million, a rise of 18 million (about 10 per cent) from final yr. Of that quantity simply 8.2 per cent had been supplied by main labels, which means that 92 per cent got here from indie musicians.
Take into consideration that for a second. Greater than 200 million songs out there to anybody with an web connection free of charge — or at the least one thing near it. Within the previous days of mega file shops, you’d be fortunate to search out 100,000 titles in inventory. For anybody complaining {that a} streaming subscription prices an excessive amount of and isn’t good worth, give your head a shake.
Diving deeper, although, we begin to see some obtrusive points. Almost half of these 202 million songs (93.2 million) obtained 10 performs or fewer. Roughly 175.5 million (87 per cent of the full songs within the library) had been performed 1,000 instances or fewer. That is fascinating as a result of Spotify, the most important streamer, refuses to pay out any royalties for any track that will get fewer than a thousand performs. Granted, a thousand performs isn’t price a lot — the worldwide common means that this might lead to US$2.38 — however these crumbs add up when unfold over 175.5 million. How a lot is Spotify saving by ignoring the artists on the backside?
What number of songs acquired zero performs? We don’t know, however credible estimates put that quantity at 50 million, or 1 / 4 of the full. (For enjoyable, signal on to a web site known as Forgotify and also you’ll get a stream of songs by no means earlier than heard by anybody.)
One other factor to contemplate: What number of of these 202 million songs are AI creations? Spotify is presently being slammed for providing “ghost artists,” cheaply made music that’s squeezing out correct musicians. Should you’ve ever used Spotify for some background chill music, likelihood is you’ve unwittingly been uncovered to this type of music. How a lot does Spotify pay out to the individuals creating this materials? It’s all work-for-hire piecework. Somebody is contracted to create X songs in a sure type and is paid a payment. After that, Spotify doesn’t pay out something for this ghost music — all within the title of saving cash.
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Again to the numbers. In 2024, streaming numbers shook out like this:
- 100,000 to 1 million streams: 2.1 million songs
- a million to 10 million: 427,700
- 10 million to 100 million: 60,000
- 100 million to 1 billion: 4,800
- one billion-plus: 33
Canadians streamed 145.1 billion songs in 2024, up 9.5 per cent from a yr earlier. We purchased extra vinyl, CDs and cassettes than in 2023 (4.8 per cent extra) however after we mix bodily and digital album gross sales, every part was down about one per cent, indicating that we’re not shopping for digital music, we’re simply streaming it. We’re additionally extra curious about streaming catalogue songs (i.e. tracks greater than two years previous) than one thing present, with a ratio of 74 per cent previous to 26 per cent new.
The report solely broke down listening by way of streaming by style for the U.S., which I’ve a sense is completely different from how we eat issues in Canada. However, right here’s how listening by style in America shakes out:
- R&B/Hip-hop: 320 billion-ish streams. Nevertheless, this style’s general share is down 2.3 factors from 2023.
- Rock: 230 billion-ish streams. Many of the listening was to “deep catalogue” songs (i.e. greater than 5 years previous). Solely about 12 per cent of listening was to present rock tracks.
- Pop: 175 billion-ish streams.
- Latin: 110 billion-ish streams.
- Dance/Digital: 50 billion-ish streams.
Pop had an enormous yr when it got here to development, shifting previous rock (No. 2) and Latin (No. 3), largely due to successes by Taylor Swift (12.8 billion streams on her personal), Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. No rock act made the highest 10 when it got here to the most well-liked streaming artists. The largest rock acts had been Noah Kahan, Hozier, Linkin Park, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac.
When it got here to listening to overseas music, Canadians went to the U.S. first, adopted by the U.Okay. and Australia. The U.S. imported its music from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a stat that should concern music people within the U.Okay. As a aspect notice, Canadian music was the third-most standard import in Australia.
Essentially the most prolific songwriters on the earth in 2024 had been Taylor Swift (30 songs within the world high 1,000 streaming songs), Max Martin (22) and The Weeknd (18). Canada completed third behind the U.S. and the U.Okay. when it come to high songwriters globally.
There’s been plenty of discuss of serving superfans during the last 12 months. These are an artist’s most fanatical supporters. In 2024, the common superfan spent US$113 a month on stay music occasions, 66 per cent greater than an everyday fan. Additionally they spent US$39 on bodily purchases a month, in contrast with the common music fan spend of US$19.
Let’s end up with a couple of odds ‘n’ ends.
- One per cent of all CDs and one per cent of all LPs are bought on the merch desk at a venue.
- 39 per cent of all LPs are bought at indie file shops.
- 29 per cent of all bodily gross sales are completed by indie file shops.
- Hip-hop followers are the most certainly to buy one thing by an artist’s on-line storefront.
- The highest music documentary was The Biggest Evening in Pop, the story of the recording of We Are the World, which streamed on Netflix. Folks spent a complete of 1.27 billion minutes watching that factor. Second was the I Am: Celine Dion on Amazon with 507.1 million.
- Gen Z spent essentially the most on festivals whereas millennials had been the most important spenders on live shows.
- Essentially the most-streamed songs in 2024 had been Lovely Issues by Benson Boone (2.577 billion), Espresso from Sabrina Carpenter (2.459 billion) and Billie Eilish’s Birds of a Feather (2.301 billion).
- Canada’s high album by way of mixed gross sales and streams was Tay-Tay’s The Tortured Poets Division adopted by Stick Season from Noah Kahan and Morgan Wallen’s One Factor at a Time.
- The primary track in all of Canada was A Bar Track (Tipsy) by Shaboozey (143.8 million streams).
It’s nonetheless early and there’s extra number-crunching to be completed. When extra information is available in, I promise to share it with you.
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