Global recorded music revenue grew by 9.4% to $39.5 billion in 2025, as the share of the market controlled by indie record labels and the revenue labels are making from merch, live performances and branding rights all saw significant growth, according to MIDiA Research’s latest report.
“The story the numbers tell is that this is a good year — basically growth across all formats — despite disruption,” Mulligan tells Billboard, noting that even digital downloads had a good year compared to the prior decade.
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Despite that broad-based growth, which represented a 4.2% increase in global recorded music revenues over a sluggish 2024, Mulligan says streaming faces significant disruption and that the makeup of music companies’ revenue in 2026 will likely change.
“I’m not saying that this is the calm before the storm, but we’re not yet seeing the effects of AI disruption, the impact of [streaming] price increases, or the impact of the Global South becoming more significant in terms of both the business and the culture of music,” Mulligan says. “It is incredibly important that the record labels have managed to diversify their growth because streaming is very exposed to disruption.”
While streaming remained the dominant contributor to global recorded music revenue last year, Mulligan points to the more than 20% growth in revenue from labels’ share of merchandise, live and branding rights — the centerpiece of their fan monetization strategies.
The growth of those expanded rights, as MIDiA refers to them, was so significant that it boosted overall recorded revenue. Stripping expanded rights out, total global recorded music revenue still grew by 7.7%.
While physical licensing and expanded rights grew faster in percentage growth terms in 2025, MIDiA’s report says there remains significant momentum underpinning streaming as the revenue engine for music.
