The German Music Industry: Investments and Payments to Artists
On behalf of the German Music Industry Association (BVMI)
Our study “The German Music Industry: Investments and Payments to Artists”, on behalf of the German Music Industry Association (BVMI), examines whether and how artists have benefited from the increased revenues of German music labels in recent years.
The German music industry has undergone significant change over the last two decades. Advancing digitalisation and the associated transformation process from physical to digital products has not only changed how consumers listen to music, but also the tasks of companies within the music industry, especially music labels. In addition to new opportunities, digitalisation has also brought new challenges for music labels, which initially led to a decline in sales for many years. It is only in the last four years that the revenue of German music labels has risen continuously again, so that in 2020 the revenue level of 2010 was reached again for the first time. In 2022, industry revenue amounted to EUR 1.15 billion and was around 17% above the 2010 level.
As the media mainly communicates the revenues of music labels, there has so far been a lack of information on the extent to which artists have also benefited from the economic recovery of music labels. This study therefore analyses the extent to which German music labels have reinvested their increased revenues of recent years in the development of new talent and existing artists and passed them on to their artists in the form of payments. To this end, we look at the following developments in this study:
• Investments in Artists & Repertoire and Marketing & Promotion
• Payments to artists by music labels
The experts behind the research
Our Economic Consulting team are world leaders in quantitative economic analysis, working with clients around the globe and across sectors to build models, forecast markets and evaluate interventions using state-of-the art techniques. Lead consultants on this project were:
Johanna Neuhoff
Associate Director of Consulting, Economic Impact
Yann Girard
Director of Consulting, Economic Impact
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