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Pop is still king of the world's music genres
11 August 2010
- Pop is the king of all music genres with almost 30% of recorded-music sales
- Rap/hip-hop suffers the largest sales decline of any genre in the last 10 years
- Classical and jazz sales not benefiting from the shift to digital
New research published today by Music & Copyright (www.musicandcopyright.com) reveals that Pop ended last year as the world's favorite music genre, just ahead of Rock. In contrast, Rap/Hip Hop has seen global sales fall faster than any other genre during the last 10 years, slipping from third place in 2000 to seventh in 2009.
According to the study, retail sales of Pop music stood at US$7.4 billion in 2009. This compared with US$6.5 billion for Rock. In terms of revenue share, Pop had 29.2% of global music retail sales last year with Rock taking a 25.7% share. The closeness of the two genres at the end of the last decade was also apparent at the beginning. In 2000, Pop had a global sales share of 27.8% with Rock at 22.7%.
Global recorded-music retail sales by genre (US$ bil.)
| 2000 | 2008 | 2009 | Change 00/09 | Change 08/09 | |
| (US$ bil.) | (US$ bil.) | (US$ bil.) | (%) | (%) | |
| Pop | 10.3 | 7.8 | 7.4 | -27.7 | -5.2 |
| Rock | 8.4 | 7.5 | 6.5 | -22.1 | -13.0 |
| R&B | 2.3 | 1.8 | 1.6 | -30.8 | -9.4 |
| Country | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.5 | -33.9 | -3.5 |
| Classical | 2.4 | 1.5 | 1.4 | -42.1 | -7.3 |
| Dance | 1.7 | 1.5 | 1.3 | -21.1 | -8.9 |
| Rap/Hip Hop | 2.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | -48.3 | -5.3 |
| Jazz | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | -40.6 | -7.2 |
| Other | 5.9 | 4.1 | 3.7 | -37.5 | -8.7 |
| Total | 36.9 | 27.8 | 25.4 | -31.0 | -8.4 |
Source: Music & Copyright
Global recorded-music retail sales by genre share (%)
| 2000 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| Pop | 27.8 | 28.2 | 29.2 |
| Rock | 22.7 | 27.1 | 25.7 |
| R&B | 6.3 | 6.3 | 6.3 |
| Country | 6.2 | 5.6 | 5.9 |
| Classical | 6.6 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Dance | 4.6 | 5.3 | 5.2 |
| Rap/Hip Hop | 6.8 | 5.0 | 5.1 |
| Jazz | 2.9 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Other | 16.1 | 14.7 | 14.6 |
Source: Music & Copyright
Despite variations in year-to-year share performance, the retail sales decline of the two genres during the last 10 years has been fairly even, confirming the endurance of the Pop and Rock categories. For Pop, retail sales decreased by 27.7% compared with 22.1% for Rock. However, both genres outperformed total music retail sales, which fell by 31% to US$25.4 billion in 2009 from US$36.9 billion in 2000.
According to Simon Dyson, editor of Music & Copyright, "The Pop genre in most countries last year was dominated by strong sales of Michael Jackson albums, confirming his position as the king of the genre. But 2009 was a very good year for plenty of other Pop artists, most notably Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle, star of last year's UK reality show Britain's Got Talent".
With Pop and Rock accounting for a combined retail sales share of 55% in 2009, other genres clearly underperformed when compared with the global sales decline. Music & Copyright found that the retail value of Rap/Hip Hop sales dropped by almost 50% between 2000 and 2009. It should be noted that the performance of some genres of music that are more popular in certain larger markets, such as the US or Japan, are disproportionately reflected on a global level due to the high share of retail sales in those markets. Country music, for example, is particularly popular in the world's biggest market, the US. In 2009 the genre accounted for around 12% of US music sales. However, lower retail sales of country music elsewhere in the world resulted in a global share of sales at 5.9%.
Retail sales of classical music and jazz were also found to have experienced a faster decline than the global average. For these genres the cut back in floor space by many music retailers in favour of more popular selling items seems to have had an impact on availability and subsequently sales.
Note to editors
The classification of any artists' music into a single genre is fairly arbitrary and can differ between record company, music retailer and national trade association. Categorizing music within a genre can often have multiple influencing factors such as musical technique, style, context, target audience and geographical origin. Moreover, many genres have sub-genres that can often overlap others. For the purposes of this study, Music & Copyright has limited itself to the most commonly used genre categories by most national trade associations when presenting a breakdown of sales by genre.
About Music & Copyright
Music & Copyright is published by Informa Telecoms & Media. It is the only reliable independent source in the world for recorded music and music publishing market shares. Published fortnightly, it covers copyright and legal issues on a global scale, focusing on developments shaping the international music business.
Written by industry experts it delivers accurate statistics and data from primary research, independent coverage of new product launches, in-depth company profiles and intelligent sector profiles not available from any other source.
Blog: musicandcopyright.wordpress.com
About Informa Telecoms & Media
Informa Telecoms & Media (www.informatm.com) delivers strategic insight founded on global market data and primary research. We work in partnership with our clients, informing their decision-making with practical services supported by analysts.
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