Royalties generated by Italian artists on Spotify jumped 20%<\/strong><\/span> year-on-year in 2024, to nearly EUR \u20ac150 million<\/strong>, or around USD $162 million<\/strong> at the average exchange rate for last year.<\/p>\n Equally notably, Italian-language music is seeing a surge in popularity globally \u2013 at least on Spotify. For the first time, Italian-language music joined the \u201c$100 million-plus<\/strong>\u201d club, that is, those languages whose music generates at least $100 million in royalties per year.<\/p>\n Italian has joined seven other languages in this club: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Back in 2017, only English and Spanish surpassed the $100 million threshold.<\/p>\n (To be clear, this list isn\u2019t a perfect reflection of which language\u2019s music is most popular worldwide; it\u2019s impacted by Spotify\u2019s footprint. If Spotify were available in China, Mandarin would undoubtedly be on the list.)<\/p>\n Spotify noted that about 50%<\/strong> of the royalties earned by Italian artists came from outside Italy. Globally, royalties earned on Italian music jumped 23% YoY<\/strong><\/span>. Spotify users in the US have created 130 million<\/strong> playlists featuring Italian artists, a higher number than in Italy itself, Spotify said.<\/p>\n \u201cStreaming truly allows more artists to succeed and be heard both in their own country and around the world. The money paid to artists and the number of artists benefiting from it is growing year by year,\u201d said Federica Tremolada<\/strong>, General Manager Europe at Spotify.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the music industry\u2019s growth isn\u2019t just financial \u2013 it\u2019s cultural. We are living in a music industry without borders like never before. Fans are driving this new era of musical success, and Spotify\u2019s role is to connect even more listeners around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n “We are living in a music industry without borders like never before.”<\/p>\n Federica Tremolada, Spotify<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Italy has been seeing some of the fastest recorded music market growth of any developed country. According to<\/a> data from music industry trade group FIMI<\/strong>, recorded music revenues grew 8.5% YoY<\/strong><\/span> in 2024, to \u20ac461.2 million<\/strong> ($499.1 million<\/strong>).<\/p>\n Music streaming subscriptions accounted for 44.1%<\/strong> of that figure, growing 17.1% YoY<\/strong><\/span> to \u20ac204.9 million<\/strong> ($221.8 million<\/strong>).<\/p>\n About 40%<\/strong> of the royalties generated by Italian artists in 2024 came from music by indie artists or labels, the platform said, which is somewhat lower than the average across Spotify as a whole. Earlier this year, Spotify said about half of royalties were accounted for by indies.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Spotify\u2019s data for Spain showed another growing market \u2013 though at a somewhat slower pace than Italy.<\/p>\n Royalties generated by Spanish artists on Spotify jumped 11% YoY<\/strong><\/span> to \u20ac137 million<\/strong> ($148 million<\/strong>), and more than 50%<\/strong> of royalties came from listeners outside Spain \u2013 perhaps not a surprise, given the size of the Spanish-speaking music market<\/a> outside Spain.<\/p>\n
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