Venice, Italy. Photo Credit: canmandawe
The Italian recorded music market achieved an 18.3 percent year-over-year revenue improvement during 2022’s opening half, per a newly released report from the European nation’s Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) industry representative.
According to FIMI, the Italian music industry generated €153.17 million (currently $152.49 million) during the first six months of 2022, which, as mentioned, marks an 18.3 percent boost from the same stretch in 2021. Predictably, streaming accounted for the lion’s share of the sum (€118.82 million), signifying a nearly 21 percent YoY jump.
Interestingly, FIMI relayed that streaming’s material revenue increase had resulted in part from relatively small (13.7 percent YoY) growth in paid subscriptions, which, at €76.89 million, nevertheless made up the majority of the category’s income.
However, ad-supported streaming hiked by 33.1 percent YoY to contribute €22.25 million to the Italian music industry during H1 2022, whereas “video streams income” rose 40.3 percent YoY to €19.69 million, the document shows.
Also in keeping with broader trends throughout the global music market, “other digital,” chiefly encompassing downloads (€2.23 million, down 15.5 percent), slipped by 14.1 percent from H1 2021, FIMI communicated.
Separately, despite likely calculating for only a portion of actual sync income (and solely the recorded side, of course), FIMI stated that the segment had turned in a 52.4 percent YoY gain to crack €6.52 million.
Shifting to physical, the Italian music industry during Q1 and Q2 of 2022 pulled down €25.54 million from CD, vinyl, and “other physical” releases, up approximately 5.8 percent YoY, FIMI disclosed.
As part of the total, though, CD revenue dipped by 7.1 percent YoY to finish at just over €10 million. “Other physical” likewise fell from H1 2021, but vinyl, with a 17.5 percent YoY improvement and €14.77 million in total income to its credit, managed to more than offset the declines.
Worth noting in conclusion is that all 10 of the top singles and albums for the Italian music industry in H1 2022 were released by Italy-based acts, the FIMI analysis indicates.
Meanwhile, with streaming (as well as its relative accessibility for creators) now comprising more than 80 percent of the domestic market, the average age of the artists behind Italy’s top-10 albums of 2021 came in at 26.2 – down 34.83 percent from 2012 and 3.7 years from 2020 alone.
And as certain of these acts (the Eurovision winner Måneskin being the foremost example) are making a splash on the global stage, FIMI proceeded to reiterate that Italian music exports had increased by €9 million across 2020 and 2021, when royalties from international markets are said to have spiked by 66 percent.
Bearing in mind these points, the major labels in recent months and years have moved to crack down on alleged copyright infringement in the country of almost 60 million residents, including an IFPI-spearheaded action against Cloudflare in July of this year.