Revenue from the global music publishing industry grew by nearly 10% to $12.2 billion in 2025, with major publishers growing at a faster rate than independent publishers, according to a new report released by MIDiA Research on Monday (Sept. 28).
The market share of major publishers grew by 1.3% to 54.7% in 2025, with Sony Music Publishing being the fastest-growing major for the second year running, adding nearly a percentage point to its market share.
Music streaming again drove the largest share of publishing revenues in 2025, and the report found that the portion of revenue coming from streaming will continue to grow through 2033. But opportunities presented by AI and other new technologies present new opportunities for publishers to secure better licensing agreements than those they have with current digital streaming partners. Catalog funds are also proving to be significant revenue sources, the report added, with music catalog fund publishing growing by nearly 15% year-over-year to $1.6 billion.

– Elizabeth Dilts Marshall, Billboard

IMPEL and IMPF published a joint licensing framework for generative AI today (September 30).
The two independent music publishing organizations set out seven principles they say should govern generative AI licensing.
The framework’s central demand is that the song not be treated as the junior partner to the recording.
“One principle is non-negotiable: the song must be properly valued and, absent other salient factors, at least equally with the recording,” IMPEL and IMPF said in a joint statement.

– Mandy Dalugdug, Music Business Worldwide

This year has shown a clear audience appetite for live, shared viewing experiences. The finale of the UK’s The Traitors attracted a live audience of 9.4 million viewers in January. An international audience flooded to watch sporting events like the Super Bowl and World Cup, with both events generating record numbers in ad revenues. Justin Bieber’s Coachella set was livestreamed on YouTube, and this performance led to his music being streamed 24.6 million times the following day (as per Rolling Stone). After years of social media becoming less social and more hyper-personalised, audiences are craving real-time unifying viewing moments they can experience together.

– Hannah Walker, MIDiA

In (yet another) busy week for AI news, there have been two significant court rulings – one in Japan and one in the US – which respectively impact on two ongoing debates: do publicity rights allow people to protect their voice in the context of AI-generated replicas and is AI training ‘fair use’ under American law?
In the Japanese case, the Tokyo District Court said a performer could stop the unapproved use of their voice by AI by exercising their publicity right. Meanwhile, the US Third Circuit Appeals Court ruled that an AI company called Ross Intelligence could not rely on the fair use defence in its legal battle with Thomson Reuters.
Both judgments are potentially good news for the music industry, although the impact of the fair use ruling may be limited because it did not relate to generative AI.

– Chris Cooke, CMU