Buying and selling music
How have recorded music sales developed? Are most sales from digital or physical formats? How big is the revenue for different types of rights holders? These statistics show the total value of recorded music sales., Recorded music sales, Here you can see recorded music sales calculated in million DKK by distribution method., In Statbank Denmark, you can find more data on Revenue from the sale of recorded music (MUSIK1), More about the figure, Last update, 16.6.2025, Next update, 5.6.2026, Source data, The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments., Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire., Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality., The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000., The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register., Read more about sources, method and quality in the documentation of statistics on Trade with Music Rights, Revenue for authors and music publishers from music sale , See the revenue for authors (songwriters and composers) and music publishers from music sales and other rights payments., Revenue for authors and music publishers, Unit: , DKK, 2022, 2023, 2024, Autor, Region Hovedstaden, 168,727,202, 143,089,372, 159,161,744, Region Sjælland, 15,089,290, 9,107,118, 14,473,805, Region Syddanmark, 12,184,534, 13,743,367, 14,955,291, Region Midtjylland, 28,766,246, 24,932,104, 28,358,308, Region Nordjylland, 4,189,827, 3,562,383, 4,495,825, Region unknown, 17,574,919, 14,266,757, 21,049,352, Publisher, Region Hovedstaden, 140,979,921, 154,210,330, 96,412,773, Region Sjælland, 5,190,127, 641,757, 3,820,073, Region Syddanmark, 2,560,394, 402,778, 1,042,985, Region Midtjylland, 4,637,924, 1,410,420, 2,692,551, Region Nordjylland, 701,608, 306,794, 1,564,930, Region unknown, 276,491,902, 113,148,341, 205,606,997, In Statbank Denmark, you can find more data on Income by sale of music (MUSIK3), More about the figure, Last update, 24.6.2025, Next update, 5.6.2026, Source data, The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments., Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire., Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality., The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000., The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register., Read more about sources, method and quality in the documentation of statistics on Trade with Music Rights, Registered works of music in Denmark, See the total of registered works of music with KODA over time., In Statbank Denmark, you can find more data on Registered musical works (MUSIK5), More about the figure, Last update, 16.6.2025, Next update, 5.6.2026, Source data, The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments., Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire., Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality., The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000., The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register., Read more about sources, method and quality in the documentation of statistics on Trade with Music Rights, On the statistics – documentation, sources and method, Gain an overview of the purpose, contents and quality of the statistics. Learn about the data sources of the statistics, the contents of the statistics and how often they are published., See the documentation of statistics to learn more:, Trade with Music Rights, The purpose of the statistics Trade with music rights is to estimate the sale of recorded music in the form of physical sales, downloads and streaming. In addition, the statistics calculate the extent of payments for the use of music for public play and by reproduction, as well as the property rights income for composers and performers. Statistics Denmark published the statistics for the first time in 2014. In 2023, the statistics were expanded with statistics on the number of registered musical works and the number of authors of music, who are copyright holders., Read more about sources, method and quality in the documentation of statistics on Trade with Music Rights, Need more data on Buying and selling of music?, You can search further in Statbank yourself. Find more detailed figures about, for example, which industries spend the biggest sum on purchasing rights to play music., Go to the StatBank, Contact, Christian Max Gustaf Törnfelt, Phone: +45 21 63 60 20, Mail: , cht@dst.dk
https://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik/emner/kultur-og-fritid/musik/koeb-og-salg-af-musik
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