{"id":196773,"date":"2024-03-19T21:05:49","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T21:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=196773"},"modified":"2024-03-19T21:50:39","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T21:50:39","slug":"over-half-of-the-artists-who-generated-at-least-10000-on-spotify-last-year-are-from-countries-where-english-is-not-the-first-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/over-half-of-the-artists-who-generated-at-least-10000-on-spotify-last-year-are-from-countries-where-english-is-not-the-first-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Over half of the artists who generated at least $10,000 on Spotify last year are from countries where English is not the first language"},"content":{"rendered":"MBW\u2019s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by\u00a0music data analytics firm\u00a0Chartmetric<\/a>.\n

A new report from Spotify sheds light on just how quickly music culture is globalizing, and shifting away from the English-language content that has dominated the music scene for generations.<\/p>\n

According to the latest edition of Spotify\u2019s annual Loud & Clear music economics report<\/a>, over half of the artists who generated more than $10,000<\/strong> on the music streaming platform in 2023 were from countries where English is not the first language.<\/p>\n

Some 66,000 artists<\/strong> generated at least $10,000 on Spotify in 2023 \u2013 nearly triple the number of artists (23,400) who generated that much in 2017, according to the report. The report estimates that this means they generated some $40,000<\/strong> across all recorded music revenue sources.<\/p>\n

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\u201cArtists who \u2013 in the past \u2013 might have struggled to break through are now finding their audiences, and the music industry today is a more diverse and accurate reflection of the world we live in,\u201d Spotify stated in the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpanish, German, Portuguese, French, and Korean lead the pack for performance in languages other than English \u2013 while Hindi, Indonesian, Punjabi, Tamil, and Greek all saw huge upticks in 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists who \u2013 in the past \u2013 might have struggled to break through are now finding their audiences, and the music industry today is a more diverse and accurate reflection of the world we live in.”<\/p>\n

Spotify<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spotify\u2019s report puts some hard numbers to the trends apparent throughout the musical ecosystem \u2013 the rise of Latin music, K-pop, Indian music and Afrobeats being just some examples of this trend.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, this means that the dominance of English-language music, especially from anglosphere countries, is diminishing.<\/p>\n

In a presentation delivered at the SXSW festival<\/strong> in Austin, Texas, on Friday (March 15), Luminate<\/strong> CEO Rob Jonas<\/strong> shed further light on this trend. According to Luminate \u2013 the market data firm behind the Billboard charts \u2013 the share of English-language tracks streamed worldwide is decreasing quickly.<\/p>\n

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Chart: Luminate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Among the top 10,000 most-streamed music tracks<\/strong> in 2023 (both audio and video), 54.9%<\/strong> were in English, down nearly seven percentage points from 62.1%<\/strong> in 2022 \u2013 which, in turn, was down from 67.0%<\/strong> in 2021.<\/p>\n

If this pace continues, by next year, English-language tracks will have dropped from being two-thirds of the most popular songs worldwide, to less than half, in just three years.<\/p>\n

Luminate\u2019s data showed that English-language music is declining in popularity even within the US, with Spanish-language music being the major beneficiary.<\/p>\n

Of the top 10,000 tracks in the US in 2023, 88.8%<\/strong> were in English, down 3.8 percentage points from 2021. Spanish-language tracks accounted for 8.1%<\/strong> of the top 10,000, nearly doubling their share from 4.3%<\/strong> in 2021.<\/p>\n

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Chart: Luminate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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And Latin music isn\u2019t alone. In a separate report released earlier this month, Spotify said that global consumption of music from India soared by more than 2,000%<\/strong><\/a> in the five years that Spotify has been operating in the country. In 2023 alone, global consumption of Indian music jumped 85%<\/strong> compared to the previous year.<\/p>\n

Spotify also noted that Indian music is becoming more popular within India as well: In Spotify\u2019s first year in the market, 70%<\/strong> of the music consumed on the platform was international; today, 70%<\/strong> is from India.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s saying something, given that India has one of the fastest-growing music markets in the world. Data in Luminate\u2019s year-end report for 2023 indicates that India could overtake the US<\/a> as the largest music streaming market \u2013 by volume, if not by revenue \u2013 as soon as next year.<\/p>\n

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Chart: Spotify<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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As music becomes more linguistically diverse in English-speaking countries, many non-English-speaking countries are seeing an explosion in the popularity of local content, in what is now dubbed \u201cglocalization<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 the trend of music tastes becoming more local even as the music industry itself becomes more global.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most intense example of this trend can be seen in Latin America, where \u2013 according to data released by Spotify<\/a> last December \u2013 Latin music has staged a near-total takeover.<\/p>\n

Between 2014, when Spotify began expanding into Latin America, and 2023, the share of Latin music consumed on the platform in Mexico went from 49%<\/strong> to 88%<\/strong>. In Colombia, it went from 36%<\/strong> to 87%<\/strong>, and in Argentina, it grew from 25%<\/strong> to 94%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Chart: Spotify<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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However, glocalization isn\u2019t limited to Spanish-speaking countries. According to a recent analysis of Luminate data carried out by Will Page<\/strong> (a former chief economist at Spotify and fellow at the London School of Economics European Institute) and Chris Dalla Riva<\/strong> (who works in analytics and personalization at Audiomack<\/strong>), larger European countries stand out in the glocalization trend.<\/p>\n

German artists went \u201cfrom presence to prominence\u201d in 2023, capturing eight of the spots among the 10 most-listened-to artists in Germany, Page wrote in a guest column<\/a> for MBW.<\/p>\n

“Consumers used to get what they were given on local radio, whereas now they choose what they want on global streaming. And what they increasingly want is local.\u201d<\/p>\n

Will Page<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In France, Italy, Sweden and Poland, half or more of the top 10 artists were local in 2023, Page noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the supply side, digitization has meant production and distribution costs have fallen, more data enables labels to learn what consumers actually want, and [there is] less global prioritization from international companies,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the demand side, it\u2019s easy: consumers used to get what they were given on local radio, whereas now they choose what they want on global streaming. And what they increasingly want is local.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Other news from Spotify\u2019s Loud & Clear report<\/h6>\n

Among other data in Spotify\u2019s latest Loud & Clear report is the news that the music streaming service paid out more than $9 billion<\/strong> to the music industry in 2023, in what it called \u201cthe highest annual payment to the music industry from any single retailer\u201d ever.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, music publishing rights holders received nearly $4 billion<\/strong> of the money paid out by Spotify over the last two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublishers, songwriters, and their CMOs are seeing more than 2x the revenue ($5.5 billion<\/strong> in 2022) in the streaming era than they ever had in the CD\/sales era ($2.5 billion<\/strong> in 2001),\u201d the Spotify report stated, citing research from Will Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Spotify report found that 11,600 artists<\/strong> generated more than $100,000<\/strong> on the platform in 2023 (likely meaning they generated around $400,000<\/strong> across all music sales), while 1,250<\/strong> generated more than $1 million<\/strong> on Spotify (or $4 million<\/strong> in total).<\/p>\n

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Yet that amounts to a small fraction of the artists who\u2019ve actually uploaded music to Spotify \u2013 something the company says is not surprising.<\/p>\n

In 2023, more than 10 million<\/strong> uploaders had at least a single track on Spotify, but the platform estimated that only around 225,000<\/strong> of them are \u201cemerging and professional artists that are building careers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a point of comparison, FIFA estimated there are hundreds of millions of people who self-identify as ‘footballers,’ but 128,694<\/strong> people are actually getting paid any amount of money from it,\u201d the Spotify report stated. \u201cWhile music and sports are quite different, this demonstrates how widespread the aspiration is to participate in creative and athletic pursuits and make a living from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother way to think about it: The 10+ million<\/strong> uploaders on Spotify are comparable to the tens of millions who have uploaded at least a single video to YouTube<\/strong>, often just to share something they enjoy with the world. The number of creators trying to build a career as a video creator is much smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/i><\/a><\/figure>Chartmetric<\/a> is the all-in-one platform for artists and music industry professionals, providing comprehensive streaming, social, and audience data for everyone to create successful careers in music.<\/em><\/span><\/strong>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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