Streaming in Austria up 22.5% in 2022 with a record 14.8 Bn songs streamed with sales reaching €143.8 million according to IFPI Austria. Total sales revenue for the year for all recorded music formats was up 13% on 2021 reaching €215.2. Vinyl sales continued to grow – up 4.3% year on year with a turnover of €10.6 million with CD and downloads continuing to decline with -17% and -18% respectively.
Music fans in Austria spent a total of 215.2 million euros on digital and physical music formats in 2022 with streaming once again proving to be a growth engine accounting for 80% of all domestic music sales. Vinyl records are establishing themselves as a stable market segment with a renewed increase of 4.3%. With the pandemic over, revenue from live performances rose to €31 million (+ 13%) and merchandising sales and the licensing of music for films contributed another €3.5 million euros for the year.
Streaming boom continues
Streaming has long since become the most popular music format in Austria with 14.8 Bn songs streamed in 2022 up from 12.7 Bn in 2021. 88% of all streaming sales are generated via the premium subscriptions of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Unlimited or Deezer, 9% are accounted for by advertising-financed audio and video streaming services, including the world’s largest music streaming platform YouTube.
Vinyl reaches 1990s levels
Demand for records continued to rise in 2022 (+4.3%) and has already generated sales of €10.6 million. Similarly high values were last achieved in the 1990s. This means that the classic physical product has a considerable market share of almost 6% in the digital age and has developed from the initial ‘cult product’ for analogue listening pleasure into a stable and reliable market segment.
By way of contrast CDs continued to lose ground in 2022, but with 1.5 million units sold and sales of €20.4 million (-17%) it is still the second largest market segment in Austria. The CD continues to enjoy great popularity among music fans, especially in the classic and pop genres, but also pop/rock. The current New Year’s concert of the Vienna Philharmonic with Franz Welser-Möst on the podium reached number 1 in the cross-genre official album sales charts in Austria – certainly a special feature of the domestic music market. However, the reduction in shelf space in retail and the concentration on best-of products are making CDs less attractive. The e-commerce share of CD sales has recently increased to 60%.
Local Austrian music on streaming platforms declines
The progressive shift of music distribution to digital and global streaming platforms, which align their algorithms to a world market, poses enormous challenges for artists from smaller markets like Austria.
This is reflected in domestic songs where in 2022, 3.6% of the streamed songs came from domestic production compared to 4.7% in 2021. The situation is better for the albums. The share of Austrian productions here is almost a quarter of the total market compared to 18% in 2021.
At the top of the 2022 album sales chart is ‘Zeit’, the eighth album by German rock legends Rammstein, followed by Harry Styles with ‘Harry’s House’ and Taylor Swift with ‘Midnights’. Raf Camora made it into the top 10 twice with ‘Zukunft’ and ‘Palmen aus Plastik 3’ (together with Bonez MC) albums in the top 10 of the annual ranking.
The British band Glass Animals delivered the most successful song in Austria in 2022 with ‘Heat Waves’, followed by the US musician Gayle with her hit ‘ABCDEFU’ and ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles, who made it onto both the album chart and also made it into the top 3 for singles. The most successful Austrian songs in 2022 are ‘Blaues Licht’ by Raf Camora & Bonez MC, ‘Expresso & Tschianti’ by Josh., ‘2CB’ by Raf Camora & Luciano and Austria’s Song Contest entry ‘Halo’ by Lum!x feat. Pia Maria.
An infographic on the Austrian music market in 2022 (in German) can be downloaded here.
