New issue of Music & Copyright with Austria country report

The latest issue of Music & Copyright is now available for subscribers to download. Here are some of the highlights.

SPECIAL FOCUS: Fall in global performance rights distributions, but growth expected to return this year
Performance rights distributions to record companies (producers) and performers were down in 2022 after rising for two straight years. Moreover, the total slipped just below the $3bn mark, having first reached the milestone in 2018. Despite the dip, several mitigating circumstances suggest that a return to growth is likely for 2023. Exchange rates affected last year’s figures, with the US dollar strengthening against most currencies. Also, advanced payments made by some societies to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on members have resulted in misleading year-on-year performance comparisons. Producers’ and performers’ rights have become an important source of income in recent years, given the long period of demise of recorded-music trade revenue. The return to growth through increased consumer interest in streaming and subscriptions has somewhat overshadowed the importance of performance rights, but the revenue source remains a key earnings generator.

NEWS FEATURE: Published national sales and consumption results point to a positive year for global recorded-music sales
Most of the world’s major recorded-music markets and one or two other smaller ones have now published midyear results detailing the sector’s performance in the first six months of this year. Music & Copyright’s annual assessment of the results suggests that global recorded-music trade revenue from the sale of physical and digital recorded-music and income from music access services is set to register a ninth straight year of growth. Moreover, the size of the rise is expected to be up on the growth rate seen last year. Although the US saw a slight dip in the growth rate for retail sales at the midpoint of 2023, Japan, the UK, Germany, and France have all seen higher rises. Moreover, despite Italy and Spain registering a slowdown, sales were still in double-digit percentage points.

SECTOR ANALYSIS: Music collides with gaming but needs to push to take center stage
Music continues to make a play across multiple gaming platforms, with headliner Ed Sheeran this month making his debut on Fortnite with iHeartRadio on the media group’s iHeartLand experience. Robbie Williams is also set to bow virtually before the end of the year on the newly developed LightCycle destination. K-pop girl act TWICE has launched a fan hub on Roblox, giving fans the opportunity to chat to band members, while Coachella has taken the festival franchise virtual on Fortnite. However, in many of these music-gaming initiatives, music is playing second fiddle to minigames and digital merch. To take full advantage, music outfits need to make greater efforts to put their content center stage.

COUNTRY REPORT: Austria
In addition to the usual set of music industry statistics and news briefs, the latest issue of Music & Copyright includes a detailed Austria music industry report.
Austria is one of Europe’s smaller music markets. Although well-developed, the country has a modest per capita spending rate on music, trailing the leading markets by some way. Moreover, Austria could be described as one of Western Europe’s laggards when it comes to the transition from physical formats to digital. Like its bigger neighbor to the north, Germany, which plays host to a large sector of consumers that have long been wedded to the CD album, physical formats accounted for the biggest share of spending on recorded-music in Austria until 2018. However, digital has quickly increased in dominance, with streaming now easily the biggest revenue generator for local record companies. Authors’ rights collections in the country returned to growth in 2022 after two straight years of decline. Performance rights receipts for producers and performers registered the biggest increase since 2017, although the total remains just short of prepandemic levels.

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