Music synchronization licensing revenue reached US$641 million globally in 2025, according to IFPI, equal to 2.0% of global recorded-music revenue. The latest result followed four consecutive years of growth and a 2.0% year-over-year decline. CISAC reports a different but complementary measure: collective-management synchronization collections reached EUR61.3 million in 2024. These figures describe different parts of the licensing market and should not be added together.
Contents
- Global revenue benchmarks
- Recent annual growth
- Synchronization in the recorded-music mix
- Collective-management collections
- Country-level music-rights context
- Regional measurements and boundaries
Global revenue benchmarks
IFPI measures record-company trade revenue from recorded music licensed for uses such as television, film, games, and advertising. On that basis, global recorded-music synchronization revenue was US$641 million in 2025. It represented 2.0% of the global recorded-music market, while the overall market reached US$31.7 billion after growing 6.4%.
The preceding annual benchmarks show both the scale and movement of this revenue stream:
- In 2024, synchronization revenue was US$650 million, grew 6.4%, and represented 2.2% of global recorded-music revenue. The total recorded-music market grew 4.8% to US$29.6 billion.
- In 2023, synchronization revenue was US$632 million, grew 4.7%, and represented 2.2% of the market. Global recorded-music revenue grew 10.2% to US$28.6 billion.
- In 2022, synchronization revenue reached US$640.4 million. It grew 22.3%, while global recorded-music revenue grew 9.0% to US$26.2 billion.
These historical measurements come from successive editions of the IFPI Global Music Report 2026, IFPI Global Music Report 2025, IFPI Global Music Report 2024, and IFPI Global Music Report 2023.
| Measurement year | Synchronization revenue | Annual change | Share of recorded-music revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | US$640.4 million | 22.3% growth | Not stated in the supplied benchmark |
| 2023 | US$632 million | 4.7% growth | 2.2% |
| 2024 | US$650 million | 6.4% growth | 2.2% |
| 2025 | US$641 million | 2.0% decline | 2.0% |
The table compares reported values as published. It does not convert currencies, recalculate percentages, or treat the reported figures as a single independently reconstructed time series.
Recent annual growth
The 2025 result is notable because the decline came after four successive years of synchronization-revenue growth, covering the 2021–2025 period described by IFPI. The 2024 increase was likewise described by IFPI as the fourth successive annual increase for the 2021–2024 period.
Growth was uneven across the years. IFPI reported 22.3% synchronization growth in 2022, followed by a slowdown to 4.7% in 2023. Growth then reached 6.4% in 2024 before the 2.0% decline in 2025. The global recorded-music market followed a different pattern: it expanded 9.0% in 2022, 10.2% in 2023, 4.8% in 2024, and 6.4% in 2025.
That comparison puts synchronization in context without implying that its annual changes must track the wider market. In 2022, synchronization growth was more than twice the overall recorded-music growth rate reported by IFPI. In 2024, synchronization grew faster than the total market. In 2025, synchronization declined while the total market expanded.
No official forecast is included here. The cited primary reports provide historical measurements rather than a sufficiently specific official forecast for future music synchronization licensing revenue.
Synchronization in the recorded-music mix
IFPI’s 2025 market breakdown shows synchronization as a small, separately reported part of recorded-music trade revenue. Streaming accounted for 69.6% of global recorded-music revenue, physical formats for 16.6%, performance rights for 9.3%, and downloads plus other digital formats for 2.5%. Synchronization accounted for 2.0%.
The 2024 breakdown reported streaming revenue above US$20 billion and a 69.0% share. Physical-format revenue was US$4.8 billion, performance-rights revenue was US$2.9 billion, and downloads plus other digital revenue represented 2.8% of the market. Synchronization’s reported share was 2.2%.
For 2023, IFPI reported US$5.1 billion in physical-format revenue, equal to 17.8% of the market, and US$2.7 billion in performance-rights revenue, equal to 9.5%. The synchronization share was also 2.2%.
These comparisons matter for producers because a synchronization placement is measured inside a broad recorded-music economy that includes several larger revenue channels. A percentage of market revenue is not a typical placement fee, an artist royalty rate, or a guarantee of income for an individual recording.
Collective-management collections
CISAC supplies a second measurement lens. Its Global Collections Report 2025 reports synchronization licensing income collected through collective-management organisations, rather than IFPI’s record-company trade revenue. CISAC reported EUR61.3 million in synchronization licensing income in 2024, up 18.4% and higher for four consecutive years.
In CISAC’s 2024 income-stream mix, synchronization collections were shown as EUR61 million and represented 0.4% of creator collections. The same report recorded total music collections of EUR12.587 billion, up 7.2% in 2024. Music digital collections grew 10.8%, while live-and-background collections grew 10.4%; digital plus live-and-background income made up two-thirds of CISAC-reported music collections.
The relevant source is CISAC Global Collections Report 2025, page 16. The income-stream context is reported on page 9.
The two headline measures answer different questions. IFPI’s US$641 million for 2025 covers record-company trade revenue from recorded music used in audiovisual and advertising contexts. CISAC’s EUR61.3 million for 2024 covers creator-rights collections through collective-management organisations. They use different scopes, currencies, and collection bases. CISAC’s value should therefore be read alongside the IFPI benchmark, not added to it.
Country-level music-rights context
CISAC’s country figures are broader music-rights collection context, not synchronization-only revenue. They indicate the scale of music-rights activity in markets where synchronization licensing operates, but they do not identify a country’s synchronization collections.
In 2024, the United States recorded EUR3,147 million in music-rights collections, up 10.8%, with a 22.5% global share. France recorded EUR1,910 million, up 7.5%, with a 13.7% share. The United Kingdom recorded EUR1,261 million, up 7.4%, with a 9.0% share, while Germany recorded EUR1,075 million, up 3.4%, with a 7.7% share.
Japan recorded EUR886 million, down 1.1%, with a 6.3% share. Italy recorded EUR729 million, up 4.3%, with a 5.2% share. Australasia recorded EUR440 million, up 3.0%, with a 3.1% share. Canada and Spain each recorded EUR371 million, representing 2.7% shares; Canada grew 3.2% and Spain grew 12.3%. The Netherlands recorded EUR338 million, up 7.1%, with a 2.4% share.
These country measurements are from CISAC’s 2024 table of music collections. Because they combine music-rights uses, they should not be presented as local synchronization-market totals.
Regional measurements and boundaries
CISAC reported EUR7,090 million in collections for Western Europe in 2024, up 6.1%. Canada and the United States together accounted for EUR3,518 million, up 10.0%. Asia-Pacific accounted for EUR1,922 million, up 2.9%; Latin America accounted for EUR786 million, down 0.6%; Central and Eastern Europe accounted for EUR566 million, up 13.8%; and Africa accounted for EUR90 million, up 14.2%.
The regional collection figures are summarized in CISAC’s collections and growth by region. CISAC also reported digital shares of 27.1% in the United States, 13.9% in France, and 11.4% in the United Kingdom in 2024. Africa’s CISAC-reported music collections grew 10.0% in the same year, according to CISAC’s collections by type of use.
IFPI’s Music in the EU 2025 report adds two Europe-specific measurements for 2024. Recorded-music synchronization revenue growth contributed EUR11 million in the European Union. Artist remuneration represented 35.5% of the three biggest record companies’ physical, digital, and synchronization revenues.
That EU figure is not a global synchronization total, and the artist-remuneration percentage covers three revenue categories together. Keeping those boundaries visible is essential when using music synchronization licensing statistics for production planning, rights education, or market comparisons.