Songtrust adds another 55,000 artists to its rights management service

Over the past year, Songtrust has added another 55,000 artists and songwriters to its rights management service.

The company, a subsidiary of Downtown Music, a publishing and rights management firm that manages rights for artists such as John Lennon, One Direction and Santigold, now has 205,000 artists on its roster and has 2 million songs it tracks.

The company has also opened three offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Nashville to complement existing locations in New York, London and Amsterdam.

The company’s growth follows that of a music industry that continues to enjoy a renaissance (at least in terms of dollars spent).

The global recorded music market grew 9.7% in 2018 to $19.1 billion, according to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (which has been tracking the industry since the days when the dominant technology was the record player).

Much of that growth is now coming from streaming, the IFPI reports, with streaming revenues growing 34% year over year and accounting for 47% of total revenue thanks to paid subscription services. There were 255 million users of paid services by the end of 2018 — and Songtrust can attribute much of its growth to the opacity in how that money makes its way back to artists.

Increasingly, those artists are having to track their performance in international markets as well. Latin America continues to be the fastest gorwing region for music consumption, followed by Asia and Australasia. Most of that growth is due to K-Pop, since South Korea accounts for 17.9% growth in money spent alone.

All of this movement shows no sign of abating, according to the bankers that track these kinds of things. Goldman Sachs recently projected that the industry could grow to over $130 billion in revenue over the next decade.