Streaming makes Brazil world’s 9th biggest market for music

In 2023, Brazil ranked ninth in the world’s top ten music markets—a remarkable performance chiefly boosted by streaming.

Last year, the Brazilian music market had revenues of BRL 2.864 billion, up 13.4 percent from the previous year.

The data can be found in a report released Thursday (Mar. 21) by Pro-Música, the organization that represents Brazil’s main record labels and producers. The result for last year more than triples the turnover of the domestic music market over the last six years.

Brazil has appeared in the ranking of the world’s top ten music markets for seven consecutive years.

The growth in 2023 exceeds the expansion of the global market (10.2%), whose revenues reached $28.6 billion in the period, also influenced by streaming.

In an interview with Agência Brasil, Pro-Música President Paulo Rosa said the growth seen in Brazil is a fact to be celebrated and a sign that the country continues to be a vital market for music, especially Brazilian music.

The document points out that, among the 200 most streamed songs in Brazil in 2023, Brazilian music had a 93.5 percent share. “This is much higher than it was in the days of vinyl and CDs. Brazilian music consumption usually accounted for around 75 percent. Today, it represents much more, at least among the most played songs. This is also something to celebrate. It showcases the great diversity of Brazilian music. It’s not just the Rio–São Paulo axis—the music produced in the big centers—but music from all over Brazil and all over the world.”

Top 10

He pointed out that Brazil does not lag so far behind the big markets, occupying ninth place in the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) top ten ranking. “We’re in ninth place in the top 10, but still a long way off when compared to the US market, for example, which boasts over $15 billion, or the UK market [$3 billion], but we’re fighting up there in the top 10.”

Paulo Rosa believes that Brazil, as the largest music market in Latin America, is a fairly accurate reflection of the region. “I think there’s still plenty of room for growth. If we look at the country’s demographics, we feel there’s still a great deal of room to continue expanding the number of subscribers of streaming platforms—the dominant model today and the biggest boost to the market.” In his view, this is an extremely successful model in Latin America, due to its accessibility and reasonable price. This is also one of the reasons why streaming is growing so fast worldwide, both in Latin America and in Brazil, he argued.

Streaming accounted for 87.1 percent of total revenues in Brazil’s recording market, up 14.6 percent from 2022, adding up to BRL 2.5 billion, maintaining streaming services as the number-one source of revenue for the sector. Subscription-based streaming on platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Apple Music, and others grew by 21.9 percent to BRL 1.6 billion. Streaming paid for by advertising grew by 7.3 percent with music videos and showed a slight drop of one percent in the audio segment.