CGTN Europe speaks to the author of the annual 'Global Value of Music Copyright' Will Page
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00:00Music a outsold Cinema last year with annual revenues from copyrighted music reaching $45.5 billion, up more than 25% since 2021.
00:12It's significantly more than the global box office revenues, which were $33.2 billion.
00:18The data has been released in the annual Global Value of Music Copyright Report covering 2023.
00:25I'm joined now by Will Page, former chief economist at Spotify and the author of that report.
00:31Great to have you with us, Will.
00:33First of all, just this figure, $45 billion, how big a deal is that?
00:38What exactly are we talking about when we're saying copyrighted music?
00:42What is it that you're measuring?
00:45Well, firstly, what it is, it's a combination of what the record labels and artists receive, which is for the master copyright.
00:51Then secondly, for what the songwriters and the publishers receive, which is called the author's right.
00:56When you put this together, you get to $45.5 billion.
00:59Why that's interesting, well, two reasons.
01:02Firstly, that's a figure that's sort of 50 than it is 40.
01:05And secondly, it's doubled within a decade, thanks to the success of streaming.
01:09So is it really all about streaming? It's about Spotify, other platforms, that's just really boosted the way people can access music?
01:17It is mainly about streaming, but there's more than a footnote needs to be given to the vinyl format, which sounds bizarre to be saying in 2024.
01:24But vinyl is now well on its way to becoming a $3 billion business.
01:28And it's far to overtaking the CDs, which is a real sign of the format times.
01:32So a combination of vinyl, the earliest format of music, and streaming, the latest format of music, is what's led to the success.
01:38Yes, Julius and myself were talking about just how popular vinyl music seems to be with really much younger consumers these days.
01:45How do you see the market changing? Is it going to be ever more streaming?
01:50I think streaming is going to carry on going further and further upfield.
01:54You think about, we've only just tipped the iceberg in terms of the established markets.
01:58Now we're seeing the emerging markets really develop streaming.
02:01Spotify is launching around the world.
02:03We're going to see Africa, South Asia, really picking up the pace and taking this revolution in music forward.
02:08And just going back to vinyl, a lot of young people are buying vinyl, but very few of them actually own a record player.
02:13So what they're actually buying is a form of merchandise.
02:16Ah, fascinating. And what's going on in the movie sector then?
02:20Why do you think that these figures are just inverting now?
02:24What's the movie sector doing wrong? Because surely streaming should be boosting the film sector.
02:30Sure. Well, let's just go back 10 years when I first did this report.
02:33If you suggested that music would overtake cinema, you'd have been laughed out of the room.
02:37But it's happened. And it's happened thanks to, I think, two factors.
02:40One, the pandemic, which really hit the cinema industry hard.
02:43It never really quite recovered to where it should have been.
02:46And then secondly, what we call the video streamers, the Netflix, Disney+, Apple TVs, these video streamers of this world,
02:53their gain is cinema's pain. And that's an important consideration.
02:57We're investing in our living rooms and we're going out less as a result.
03:01So you've seen Netflix take off whilst cinema's really not recovered back to its previous highs.
03:07And what's your outlook then as we head into the festive holiday season?
03:11Is that when the movie industry seems to get a bit of a bump? Does it affect the music industry?
03:17It does. I mean, they both have that bump.
03:20In movies, you'll see things like Paddington 3 become the de facto family movie at the Christmas season.
03:25And I can guarantee you, I bet your bottom dollar that George Michael's Last Christmas will be the number one song again on Spotify for the 15th year running this summer in Britain.
03:33So, yeah, the song remains the same with regards to the Christmas season, you could say.
03:38OK, well, great to get your thoughts on this today. Thanks so much for joining us.
03:42That's Will Page, author of the Global Value of Music Copyright Report.