According to FIMI, the organisation that represents the italian recorded music industry, there was a strong growth of 27,8% and more than € 332 million of revenue for local revenues, boosting Italy to the top ten of the most important global markets after five years.
Deloitte/IFPI market data show that, as had happened in 2020, revenues from new streaming accounts boosted the whole italian record industry: paid subscription streaming segment rose by 35,6%.
Strong impact has also been seen in the video streaming area, which, thanks to advertising, rose by +46,3%. Overall, the whole audio and video streaming segment grew by 24,6%, reaching €208 million. Considering the only audio segment, Italian consumers achieve over a billion of streams every week. Generally, as highlighted also by the IFPI Engaging with Music research, in 2021 Italian consumers spent over 19 hours a week by listening to music: 45% of them through a premium account, whereas the percentage rises of 57% in people aged 16 to 24 years.
After a difficult 2020, also CD sales come to generate renevue, growing up to +10.6% - nevertheless, this data remains lower when compared to 2019. Considering physical sales in particular, the enduring growth of vinyl continues. After overcoming CD sales at the beginning of 2021, the vinyl segment confirmes its exploit due to a rise of nearly 79%, while other physical formats like audio cassette revenues increased by 245%. The Italian Culture Bonus – 500 € provided by the Italian State to the 18 years olds for them to spend to buy books, cinema tickets, concert tickets and recorded music (both physical and digital) - made the difference with regard to the physical formats, whose impact came to represent over € 21 million overall.
Also performance rights segment rose with a +37,2% to € 52 million, while music synchronization licenses increased to 36,4%, passing € 10 million for the first time.
This was a particular strong year for the Italian music market: these results confirms the wide investments on Italian artists and new young talents by local record labels. Tax credits for new productions, furthermore, definitely had positive effects.
In the annual charts, Italian repertoire dominates both the Album and the Single top tens: a large group of Gen Z artists obtained wide-ranging results by winning several platinum records. Overall, in 2021 a number of 231 Albums, 6 Compilations and 1.054 Digital Single Tracks have been awarded with gold, platinum, and multiplatinum records.
Due to the strong innovation within the music industry (among the leading segments of Italian digital economy) successful opportunities have been created for artists.
In 2021, 479 albums surpassed 10 million of streams from 302 artists, a very relevant growth comparing ten years ago.
In 2011 only 134 albums by 105 artists exceeded the equivalent threshold of 10.000 copies (physical + download): a very important data, even considering the economic sustainability of the market.
During the past year renevues also grew for the Italian music abroad, which in terms of royalties generated from abroad, has grown by 66% reaching about € 20 million.