Global Revenues of Italian Music Grew by 20% in 2023

In 2023, revenues from Italian music consumed abroad reached 26 million euros. It is a 20% growth in music export compared to the previous year. FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) announced it during the conference “The Galaxy of Digital Creativity” of the Italian Ministry of Culture that took place today (Feb. 21). In the last four years, total annual revenues of Italy’s music export increased by more than 15 million euros. Today, they are 130% higher than the pre-pandemic levels.

Italy’s music export: digital and physical

The growth is driven by the digital sector (+11%, 21 million euros). This can also be understood from the extraordinary performances of the Sanremo songs in streaming, which climbed the global charts of the platforms.

On Spotify, the “Sanremo 2024” playlist has become the most listened to in the world for the first time in terms of number of plays and listeners. It determined a 10% increase in listening to Italian music on the platform compared to 2023. An example of this penetration of the Italian repertoire is also provided by the “Top Songs Debut Global” chart of Feb. 9-11, in which seven songs out of ten were from the Sanremo Festival.

The YouTube Global Charts during the week of the event recorded the debut of five music videos of Sanremo songs in the Top 100.

Revenues from abroad are also growing for physical products. These mark +130% compared to 2022, for a total of 1.5 million euros. Sync and neighbouring rights also grew (+124% and +11% respectively).

The comment of Enzo Mazza (FIMI)

Enzo Mazza, CEO of FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana), stated: “These results demonstrate the strong investment plan of record companies in the local repertoire, which has been enhanced by the digital innovation that has affected them in recent years and which has become the protagonist of a important generational change capable of exporting Italian music to the world with ever greater authority”.