AI Is Threatening the Music Industry but Sales Are Still Soaring

Music streaming revenue in Hungary increased dramatically last year, by more than 2.6 billion forints (6.5 million euros). In international terms, total commercial revenue reached $29.6 billion in 2024, an increase of 4.8% compared to the previous year.

The 2024 statistics on physical and digital sales of the sound recording market were published by the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) on Thursday in its annual report (Global Music Report), while the domestic data were prepared by the organization’s domestic representative, Mahasz (Hungarian Recording Industry Association).

The domestic sound recording industry’s revenue last year approached net 12.2 billion forints (30 million euros). The nominal value of the amount has shown an increase for the eleventh year. The revenue of music streaming in Hungary increased by more than 2.6 billion forints (6.5 million euros), including the total digital turnover: from 7.5 billion forints (18.7 million euros) in 2023 to 10.2 billion forints (25.5 million euros), or an increase of 35.3%.

The revenue generated by music streaming was more than 10 billion forints (25 million euros) last year.

From this almost 6.8 billion forints (17 million euros) came from subscription audio streaming, 761 million forints (1.9 million euros) from advertising-based audio streaming, and 2.5 billion forints (6.2 million euros) from video streaming.

The digital revenue generated by Hungarian music increased again: more than a third (34%), or 3.5 billion forints (8.7 million euros), of the total digital music turnover came from digital sales of the domestic repertoire, typically from streaming.

In 2024, 12 percent more vinyl records were sold (269 thousand pieces), which generated 12% more revenue than a year earlier. The growing trend was able to compensate for the decrease in demand for CDs in terms of volume. Last year, 670 thousand physical audio carriers were sold in Hungary, for a total of 2 billion forints (5 million euros).

The IFPI report highlighted that global recorded music revenues have increased for the tenth consecutive year. The published data shows that total commercial revenue reached $29.6 billion in 2024, which represents an increase of 4.8%.

The key to the growth was subscription streaming, which grew by 9.5% worldwide, while the number of subscription account users increased by 10.6% to 752 million.

“One of the key issues we have examined in this report is the role of artificial intelligence in music. Record labels have begun to exploit its potential to enhance artists’ creativity and create new, exciting fan experiences.

At the same time, there is a very real and present threat to human art from developers of generative AI systems that use copyrighted music to train their models without the permission of the rights holders,”

stated Victoria Oakley, IFPI’s chief executive. She added that decision-makers are being called on to protect music and the arts and that the potential of artificial intelligence should be used to support and amplify human creativity, not replace it.

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