Music royalty collections reached a new high in 2024, but the growth was uneven across digital, live, broadcast, and regional markets. CISAC member societies collected €12.59 billion from music repertoires worldwide, while digital creator royalty collections reached €5.14 billion. The figures below show where performance-related income is expanding, where older channels are slowing, and how collected money is allocated.
Contents
- Global scale of music royalty collections
- Digital and streaming royalty growth
- Live and public performance collections
- Broadcast, licensing, and other markets
- Regional collection patterns
- Distribution and payout benchmarks
Global scale of music royalty collections
The broadest available measure comes from the CISAC Global Collections Report 2025, covering collections by CISAC member societies. Across all creator repertoires, societies collected €13.97 billion in 2024, an increase of 6.6% from 2023. Global creator royalty collections were 65.2% higher in 2024 than in 2015. These figures cover creator repertoires generally; the music-specific total was €12.59 billion.
Music collections increased 7.2% year over year in 2024. CISAC describes the 2024 music-repertoire total as about two-thirds higher than a decade earlier. The main collection categories reported for the year were:
| Collection category | 2024 collections | Change from prior year |
|---|---|---|
| Music repertoire | €12.59 billion | 7.2% |
| Digital creator royalties | €5.14 billion | 11.2% |
| Broadcast music | €3.94 billion | 0.8% |
| Live and background music | €3.60 billion | 9.6% |
The category totals describe different collection channels and should not be added together as a complete global total without accounting for the report’s category definitions. They do, however, show the contrast between faster-growing digital and live income and the much slower broadcast increase.
Europe accounted for more than half of global creator royalty collections in 2024. In regional creator-repertoire totals, Western Europe generated €7.09 billion, up 6.1% year over year. Asia-Pacific generated €1.92 billion, up 2.9%, while Latin America generated €786 million, down 0.6%.
Digital and streaming royalty growth
Digital collections are the strongest long-run growth area in the supplied figures. Global digital royalty collections from audio streaming and video-on-demand subscriptions were seven times higher in 2024 than in 2015. Digital income for creators increased 110.6% between 2020 and 2024, and digital sources supplied nearly 54% of all new creator income generated during that period.
The United States and France illustrate how different market mixes can be. Digital sources represented 27.1% of creator royalty collections in the United States in 2024, compared with 13.9% in France. These percentages refer to each country’s creator royalty collections, not to a global streaming payout rate.
Several markets recorded much higher digital shares of music-royalty collections:
- Vietnam: 89.6% digital in 2024; digital collections were up 1,732.5% from 2015.
- India: 82.7% digital; digital collections were up 67,630.9% from 2015.
- Mali: 89.9% digital in 2024.
- Indonesia: 82.5% digital; digital collections were up 2,657.4% from 2015.
- Philippines: 80.9% digital; digital collections were up 9,101.9% from 2015.
- Nepal: 78.2% digital; digital collections were up 21,513.2% from 2015.
- Thailand: 69.1% digital; digital collections were up 5,523.0% from 2015.
The very large percentage increases from 2015 are growth measurements, not forecasts. They also do not establish the absolute size of each market. A high digital percentage can reflect both expanding online use and the relative size of other collection channels.
SoundExchange provides a separate United States benchmark for digital performance royalties. Its Annual Report for 2024 says the organization collected $1.056 billion across its reported operations. Statutory royalty collections were $909 million in 2024. The comparable statutory figure for 2023 was $936 million, which SoundExchange reported as 3% lower than 2022.
Live and public performance collections
Live and background music collections reached €3.60 billion globally in 2024, up 9.6% year over year, according to the CISAC Global Collections Report 2025. Music live and background income increased 10.4% globally in 2024. Over the longer period, global live and background royalty collections were more than one-third above their 2015 level and nearly one-quarter above their pre-pandemic peak.
The regional pace was especially strong in North America and Africa. Live and background collections in Canada and the United States rose 15.7% in 2024. The corresponding increase in Africa was 13.8%.
The PRS Annual Report & Financial Statements 2024 gives more detailed UK and international benchmarks. PRS public-performance revenue increased 14.2% in 2024, a gain of £35.6 million. PRS live revenue across UK and global markets increased by £18.5 million, or 26.9%. International revenue from major live concerts increased by £6.6 million.
The PPL PRS joint venture collected more than £90 million from live performances in 2024. Separately, the SOCAN Annual Report 2024 reported that concert revenue increased 17.7% year over year in 2024.
These measures are not interchangeable: CISAC reports global society collections, PRS reports its own revenues and distributions, and SOCAN reports its organization-specific concert revenue. Together they indicate strong live-performance collection momentum across several collecting societies.
Broadcast, licensing, and other markets
Broadcast collections were more stable than digital or live income. Global broadcast collections fell 3.0% in 2023 before returning to 0.8% growth in 2024. TV and radio’s share of global creator collections declined by 1.6 percentage points in 2024. Music broadcast income itself increased 1.2% globally in 2024.
Physical formats remain below their earlier level. Global physical-format royalty collections were 37.7% below their 2015 level in 2024. This is a comparison with 2015, not a statement that every physical format or territory declined at the same rate.
Within the PRS figures, newer licensing uses grew faster than traditional linear broadcasting. PRS royalties from video-game providers increased 165% in 2024, a rise of £14.1 million. Video-on-demand royalties increased 17.9%, a rise of £7.8 million. By contrast, royalties from traditional linear broadcasting fell 2.4%, a decline of £3.1 million.
BMI reported a different type of benchmark in its FY2024 Annual Report. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, BMI said its royalty distributions rose 13%, reaching the highest level in the company’s history. BMI also reported distributing 85% of licensing revenue to songwriters, composers, and publishers during that fiscal year.
Regional collection patterns
The regional figures show that collection growth is not uniform. Western Europe remained the largest listed regional market at €7.09 billion in 2024, while Asia-Pacific recorded €1.92 billion and Latin America €786 million. Their year-over-year changes were 6.1%, 2.9%, and negative 0.6%, respectively.
Digital shares were particularly high across several Asian markets. Hong Kong’s digital sources represented 64.0% of music-royalty collections in 2024, with digital collections up 617.0% from 2015. Ukraine recorded a 63.3% digital share and 280.1% growth from 2015. Mexico recorded a 65.1% digital share and 3,203.2% growth from 2015.
| Market | Digital share of music royalties in 2024 | Digital growth from 2015 |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | 89.6% | 1,732.5% |
| India | 82.7% | 67,630.9% |
| Indonesia | 82.5% | 2,657.4% |
| Philippines | 80.9% | 9,101.9% |
| Nepal | 78.2% | 21,513.2% |
| Mexico | 65.1% | 3,203.2% |
| Hong Kong | 64.0% | 617.0% |
| Ukraine | 63.3% | 280.1% |
The table compares shares and indexed growth, not total royalty values. It therefore helps describe market structure and direction, but it cannot rank these territories by the absolute amount paid to creators.
Distribution and payout benchmarks
Collection totals do not equal the amount distributed in the same period, and organization-level figures should be read within each society’s reporting definitions. PRS distributions to rightsholders reached £1.020 billion in 2024, up 8.1% from 2023. Distributions from international income reached £356 million, up 20.1% year over year.
PRS paid more than 78,000 members in its October 2024 distribution, including more than 5,000 members who were paid for the first time. Its December 2024 distribution totaled £265 million. The PRS report also states that ICE had distributed more than €4.5 billion to rightsholders from multi-territory online services since its creation in 2016, measured through the 2016–2024 period.
SoundExchange reported $1.054 billion in gross distributions in 2024 and an operating administrative rate of 5.2%. Its Annual Report for 2024 describes the U.S. statutory digital-performance allocation as follows:
- 50% goes to the sound-recording copyright owner.
- 45% goes to featured artists.
- 2.5% is deposited for non-featured musicians.
- 2.5% is deposited for non-featured vocalists.
SoundExchange also reports distributing 100% of royalties collected under the U.S. Section 112(e) ephemeral-copy right to the copyright owner. These are statutory allocation rules for the specified U.S. digital-performance framework, not a universal split for every music royalty stream.
For music producers, the practical lesson from these statistics is that collection channel, territory, right type, and reporting period all matter. Digital income is the fastest-growing large category in the global figures, live and background uses have moved above their pre-pandemic peak, and broadcast growth is comparatively modest. Payout benchmarks then show why a collection headline should be separated from the amount ultimately distributed and from the allocation applicable to a particular right.