"Creator Rights" unlock new revenue sources for long-term growth

• The report titled ‘Growth from Transparency: Reframing the Value of Music through Creator Rights’ identifies non-music activity in the digital world including social posts, live Q&As, and virtual meet and greets, as part of an ecosystem that could lead to a $61.7 billion Music Industry by 2028
• Current music royalty structures struggle to keep pace with opportunities in the digital landscape, which is often because licensing frameworks are not structured to maximise the return for music rights

London, UK, 11 November, 2021- MIDia Research and Music fintech company, Utopia Music, launched a new report that expects 58% Music Industry growth to $61.7 billion by 2028 if a new Creators Rights licensing framework is enabled that encompasses non-music activity in digital environments.

The report titled ‘Growth from Transparency: Reframing the Value of Music through Creator Rights’ available on creatorrights.utopiamusic.com found that the opportunity for short-term monetisation growth will come from recorded music streaming and sync. However, longer-term growth will come from User-Generated Content (UGC) and social, creator tools, livestream concerts, fandom and games. 

“It’s really exciting to see the potential for growth in the music business,” said Roberto Neri, COO at Utopia Music. “But that’s only going to be possible with robust technology that enables revenue collection and distribution, as well as updated copyright that protects the wealth of value that music creators offer in today’s digital age. At Utopia, we’re working hard to provide the former and the wider Music Industry, as well as tech platforms, should be open to adapting to the latter.”

Potential industry growth in 2028 would be led by an increase from 2020 values of 86% to $26bn of recorded music streaming, 76% to $3.5bn in sync, 100% to $8bn in UGC and social, 100% to $2bn in creator tools, 1100% to $6bn in live-streamed concerts, 900% to $5bn in Fandom, and $4bn in games.

“The music business is on the cusp of an incredibly exciting period of growth,” said Mark Mulligan, MD and Analyst at MIDiA Research. “Powered by the continued digital evolution which will diversify even further the amount of income streams available to creators. As we propose in this report, a ’Creator Right’ will only support this growth and help update copyright for the 21st century.”

The report also covers the issues and priorities in current rights and licensing frameworks. These include the metadata gap, the unallocated royalties, the interoperability problem, the performing rights value gap, the creator empowerment problem, the education gap and licensing scalability. According to a study conducted by MIDiA and Utopia, creators’ top need is to have better or greater visibility on the source of their royalties or what the royalty is attributed to.