MBW’s 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 music data analytics firm Chartmetric.
Given the lacklustre growth in US recorded music revenues last year, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if music publishing revenues also showed signs of weakening.
But that hasn’t happened. New numbers from the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) show that publishing revenue growth actually accelerated in 2024, compared to the year before, rising 13.41% to $7.039 billion.
That marks a notable increase from the 10.7% growth rate seen in 2023, and it marks the 10th consecutive year of double-digit music publishing revenue growth in the US, NMPA President and CEO David Israelite told the audience at the trade organization’s annual general meeting on Wednesday (June 11).
“To put that in perspective, consider this: Just 10 years ago, the recorded music industry was 220% larger than the music publishing industry. Today, it’s just 60% larger,” Israelite said.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), recorded music wholesale revenues rose 2.7% YoY in 2024, to $11.3 billion – a growth rate that was actually lower than the US’s inflation rate of 2.9% for 2024 – pulled down by declining advertising payouts. Music publishing’s growth rate just about quintupled the growth in recorded music.
(The wholesale figure for recorded music – that is, the money that actually ended up with artists, labels, and distributors – is lower than the headline $17.67 billion that RIAA reported, but it’s the appropriate comparison to the NMPA’s music publishing numbers, as the NMPA reports wholesale publishing revenues.)
So what’s behind publishing’s banner year? Israelite pointed to one key factor: Accelerated efforts at collecting unpaid royalties.
“Just last year, 27% of the total revenue paid to songwriters and music publishers came from sources that originally claimed they did not have to license or pay for songs,” Israelite said.
“We fought, we won, and now nearly $2 billion of our revenue last year came from these sources.”
The double-digit growth came despite a hit to publishers’ and songwriters’ mechanical royalty revenue when Spotify last year reclassified its paid US music subscriptions as “bundles” with audiobooks.
The streaming giant took advantage of a rule in the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)’s Phonorecords IV regulations that allows digital service providers to pay out a lower mechanical royalty rate from bundled subscriptions than they would from a standalone music subscription. Amazon Music followed suit, shifting its own paying music subscriber base to a bundled service.
NMPA Executive Vice President and General Counsel Danielle Aguirre said Spotify’s move resulted in a loss of $230 million in mechanical royalties in its first year, and could end up costing $3.1 billion by 2032.
That assumes the bundling rule won’t be removed in the CRB’s next rate regulation, Phonorecords V, which has yet to be negotiated and will set mechanical royalty rates for the 2028-2032 period.
“This incredible [revenue] growth story is in spite of the fact that 72% of our revenue is under oppressive government price controls which have denied songwriters and music publishers the true value of their intellectual property.”
David Israelite, NMPA
In the wake of Spotify’s move, the NMPA has been calling on Congress to let music publishers opt out of the Copyright Royalty Board’s mandatory mechanism, and negotiate royalty rates with streaming services “in a free market.”
At the annual general meeting on Wednesday, Israelite renewed his call for a loosening of the regulations that govern music publishing royalties in the US.
“This incredible [revenue] growth story is in spite of the fact that 72% of our revenue is under oppressive government price controls which have denied songwriters and music publishers the true value of their intellectual property,” he said.
As a potential remedy, Israelite urged collective action – not in the sense of songwriters unionizing, but in the sense of rights holders sticking together when negotiating.
“When GMR stands up to the bullies of big radio, we should all stand behind them. When CSAC fights for better rates from Google – one of the largest companies in the history of the planet – we should all stand behind them.
“And while ASCAP and BMI don’t have the power to say no under their consent decrees when they go to rate court to fight for better rates from broadcast radio or satellite radio or live music venues, we should all stand behind them as we continue the fight to get more of your rights in a free market,” he said.
“There is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference in songwriter income if we all stand together, and all of us need to do a better job articulating why we are in these disputes, so that songwriters are armed with the information they need to help themselves… The rates achieved where we are in a free market have a ripple effect on those rates under government control.”
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