DiMA January Playlist Newsletter 2024
1. Review: Streaming Success in 2023 and Beyond
2023 was a huge year for music streaming, and the success story is set to continue in 2024. Over the last year streaming has broken down regional and cultural boundaries enabling artists to establish their careers and find new audiences across the world, strengthening the relationships between artists and fans. Streaming increasingly enables customization and personalization of music listening with the ability for subscribers to discover, rediscover, and engage with new and established music from every style, culture, and corner of the world. We have seen growth in subscribers, listening, and engagement, and tools that enable increased access to insights for artists such as artist marketing and creator dashboards.
In the first half of the year streaming services generated 84% of all recorded music revenue according to RIAA’s mid-year report. More people subscribed to music streaming services in 2023 than ever before with an 11% year-over-year increase in subscriptions. Fans clearly value their music streaming services and the ability to control their experience—DiMA’s Streaming Forward 2023 Fan Engagement Report found that 91% of streamers say it’s important to have the ability to decide what to listen to and when. This increase in subscriptions and record revenues is only the beginning of what music streaming accomplished in 2023.
Be sure to check out our blog for more about streaming’s success in 2023.
2. Spotlight: Top Songs of 2023
Streamed to the top: Analysis by DiMA, the global voice of music streaming, reviews year-end-data, curated playlists, and charts from its member companies – Amazon, Apple Music, Feed.fm, Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube – showcasing how streaming has revolutionized choice for music fans. Global hits, country tracks, hip-hop and Latin have a strong showing in this year’s charts, along with a strong presence of female creators. See DiMA’s full analysis here.
You can listen to the playlists from DiMA’s analysis on your favorite streaming service:
- Amazon’s best songs reflect the growing number of successful female creators in 2023, with music fans showing their dedication to powerhouses like SZA, Doja Cat, and more across a variety of genres.
- Apple’s top songs show listeners’ embracing country music, with Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” toping the Billboard Hot 100 for 16 weeks in 2023. This genre is gaining global recognition across streaming platforms.
- Feed fm’s top workout songs reveal streaming’s power of discovery. Afrobeats tracks like Rema’s “Calm Down” featuring Selena Gomez have found a growing fan base for music from African artists on streaming platforms.
- Spotify’s top tracks mark Taylor Swift’s streaming domination in 2023, with fans discovering and rediscovering music from all of Swift’s eras. This surge saw Swift’s streams jump 61% globally, bringing more listeners to platforms.
- YouTube’s top music videos have fans showing their love for Latin music for a fourth consecutive year. The combination of immense talent and the access provided by streaming continue to bring new listeners to the genre from around the world.
3. Research: New Study on Canadian’s Love for Music Streaming
New survey research from DiMA and Spark Insights on streaming in Canada revealed widespread use and popularity among people of all ages and economic backgrounds. Not only are millions of Canadians streaming, but they also reported a strong level of satisfaction with music streaming services, with 86% saying they are satisfied! These findings build on the key points of DiMA’s 2023 testimony to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) on streaming services’ support of Canadian creators and works. Read DiMA’s full testimony here, and get the full report from Spark Insights here.
Some key findings include:
- Young people are the biggest users of music streaming– among those under 30 years old, 91% use a music streaming service. Satisfaction levels among this group are right on the national average, at 85%.
- Two out of three Canadians use a music streaming service, including 32% who have a paid subscription.
- It’s not only younger people who use these services: 40% of those who are 60 or older use music streaming, and 87% of them are satisfied with the service they use most often.
4. Tune In: MLC Redesignation Process
On January 30, 2024, the US Copyright Office published a Notice of Inquiry for redesignation of the Mechanical Licensing Collective in the Federal Register, marking an important opportunity for the music industry to assess what is working well in the mechanical licensing process, and what may need further work to realize the promise of the Music Modernization Act to support a thriving music economy.
Graham Davies, President and CEO of DiMA, said the following upon the Copyright Office’s issuance of the Notice of Inquiry:
“The Music Modernization Act was landmark legislation designed to improve the licensing system for all stakeholders. The MMA was necessary to enable the streaming economy to grow to be the incredible success story it has become today. As set out in the MMA, the MLC has a critical role to play in this process. While we recognize the significant progress made since the MLC’s inception, the US Copyright Office redesignation process is an important opportunity to reflect on what should be required of the MLC over the next phase in terms of transparency, efficiency and neutrality. This review was intentionally built into the law, and we look forward to engaging in this important process.”
Read DiMA’s full statement on the commencement of the MLC redesignation process, here.
5. On Repeat: Streaming’s Global Success
The numbers don’t lie: Music streaming is a global success, and numbers from the UK and Germany are the latest to prove it.
Reporting from Billboard on year-end figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) states that “streaming now makes up more than 88% of all music sales in the U.K.”, and that “a 9.8% year-on-year rise in subscription streaming revenues” was behind the record growth.
DiMA President and CEO, Graham Davies commented on the UK news, sharing that “the power of streaming services to engage fans and create a strong, stable and growing market for music streaming subscriptions again delivers results, this time in the UK.”
Germany’s number of streams grew by 12% in 2023, according to a study conducted by BVMI, the German labels body. The study also found that streaming has elevated the artist-listener connection, with Dr. Florian Drücke, CEO of BVMI stating that “audio streaming has deepened our relationship with music. Thanks to time- and location-independent access, it potentially shapes every situation in our lives.”
6. Up Next: The 2024 Grammys
DiMA looks forward to connecting with creators and other music leaders on a range of issues facing the industry in the year ahead. Stay tuned for DiMA’s coverage of Grammy Week 2024 and follow DiMA on Twitter and LinkedIn for more streaming news.
Follow DiMA (@digitalmediausa) on Twitter to follow the conversation.
