Local music in Italy increased in 2022 from 73% of the Top 100 album charts in 2021 to 83% in 2022 according to FIMI, the Italian recorded music industry association. The Top Ten Albums of 2022 are all Italian for the third year in a row and the Top Ten Singles are all Italian for the second year in a row, a trend that is driven by streaming consumption. By way of comparison, the top ten most watched films at the cinema in Italy in 2022 were 100% international blockbusters. The top 100 cinemas in Italy only show 19% of Italian films with the first Italian film only making 13th place according to the Cinetel ranking.
2022 also saw a further decrease in the average age of artists in the top ten. In 2022 this was around 25 years, in 2021 it was 26 and ten years before it was 36. A generational change that has not been seen anywhere else in the culture and entertainment sector of the country. Gen Z artists have embraced new technologies, from streaming to social media, conquering large audiences of teenagers, revolutionizing musical genres and consumption patterns.
All the charts from 2022 and previous years can be found here.
Streaming continues to advance in 2022
There were 62 Bn streams in 2022 with premium subscriptions rising by 23%. In 2022, 558 albums (+79 compared to the previous year) exceeded 10 million streams belonging to 336 artists (+34 compared to 2021). This is a surprising difference compared to the results of the previous decade: in 2012, only 137 albums (corresponding to 92 artists) had exceeded the equivalent threshold of 10,000 copies sold (physical plus downloads).
Despite the march of streaming there is still a strong demand for physical products. Francesco Guccini, with his latest album, Canzoni da Intorto, released only on physical media, topped the Christmas charts and finished in sixth place among the best-selling vinyl records of the year.
