Music executives from across international music companies gathered for the media launch in London of the IFPI Global Music Report 2025.
Covering the 2024 market performance globally, the organisation for recorded music’s annual report showed a positive picture across the world – albeit with the headline rate of growth slowing (see the full story here).
“Part of the slowdown is because we've been incredibly successful converting consumers into the paid model,” said Dennis Kooker, president, global digital business, Sony Music Entertainment.
As usual, there was discussion about paid streaming growth, ad-funded tiers, artist partnerships and growth markets.
But the main issue on the agenda was the threat posed to the music industry by generative AI – not least as IFPI’s numbers marked the 10th anniversary of the turnaround in growth following the impact of piracy in the noughties.
Overseeing her first edition of the IFPI Global Music Report since taking on the CEO role, Victoria Oakley acknowledged that AI has preoccupied the music policy agenda this year.
“At its best, generative AI can be a really powerful tool for artists and consumers alike,” she said. “In the report today, you'll see some really fantastic examples of what generative AI can do with permission. But we continue to engage with policymakers around the world to set out clearly that copyright rules – which have served everyone well for years and years and given us innovative new services, including streaming – need to be applied equally in a generative AI world and in a way which is transparent and practical for all involved.”
We continue to engage with policymakers around the world to set out clearly that copyright rules need to be applied equally in a generative AI world
Victoria Oakley
Dennis Kooker is a veteran of these IFPI events, and he had plenty to say on behalf of the major – which has already taken significant action to support artists. It was revealed earlier this month that it has requested more than 75,000 takedowns of generative AI fake tracks replicating its stars’ music.
Acknowledging the continuing growth in paid subscription revenue of 9.5%, Kooker said that the basis of that success was a strong copyright model.
“The paid subscription model has built on this premise and is accompanied by free market negotiations between platforms and rights-holders,” he said. “Without that foundational principle in place, there wouldn't be a paid subscription model today. There wouldn't be over 750 million subscribers that we're announcing [in the IFPI report]. There wouldn't be a Spotify, or YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tencent Music, NetEase, or many others that are out there and robustly competing in today's markets.
“These services are all built on arm’s length negotiations with rights-holders. That's led to the best music products that have ever been designed for consumers at a price that delivers incredible value – the entire history of music at your fingertips for just £11, €11, $11 or the equivalent, or even less if you’re on a family plan.
“This point is so important, because today, AI technology companies are lobbying governments around the world to create exceptions and loopholes in the law, through TDM [text and data-mining] exceptions and broadening definitions of fair use. We've seen these positions laid out recently, both here in the UK and last week in the US.”
The comments follow the UK government’s consultation on a TDM exception for AI companies, as well as submissions to the US government’s AI Action Plan by companies including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google last week.
There's a reason that music is always impacted early in these disruptive technology cycles – it's an emotional, passionate product that almost every human on Earth enjoys
Dennis Kooker
Kooker rebuffed some of the arguments made for limiting AI regulation, including the need for innovation and – according to OpenAI’s proposals to government – to bolster critical areas such as national security.
“I don't think a music generation tool is going to make anyone safer, and if it does, then we should be protecting copyright even more,” he said. “And so I think that, really, that argument kind of works against you.”
“I think the innovation argument is one that's really one-sided and potentially highlights the reasons for pushing so hard for the text and data mining exceptions and broadening the fair use doctrine in the US,” Kooker added. “Data is essential to training generative AI models, and without data, there's no product. It's an essential cost of doing business, unless you're able to convince governments to give it to you for free.
“Spotify recently announced that they have paid over $10 billion to rights-holders this year [2024] alone. If you look across the legitimate services licensing music today, that's probably in excess of $50 billion annually. For those who are arguing for those [AI] exceptions, imagine being able to reduce that or eliminate that cost, that $50 billion a year entirely… or, maybe more importantly, to be able to go and market your new music generation service so that you can put the existing players out of business while paying artists and songwriters nothing at the same time.
“From my perspective, that's an incredible market distortion. And imagine that – Spotify, a private company a decade ago, has grown into one of the 20 most valuable companies in Europe, and here they would have to compete with AI music products that have zero cost of content.”
Kooker said that effect would be felt across the streaming ecosystem, including YouTube Music, Apple Music, Amazon, Tencent, Netease, Deezer and many more.
“How crazy does that sound to even suggest that – that the DSPs wouldn't have to pay rights-holders for using their content, that's exactly what what is being asked for,” he said. “[The growth in IFPI’s figures] is about paid subscription, but it's paid subscription supported with a rights model that encourages free market deals, builds value for artists and songwriters, for music companies and publishers and for DSPs, who build great products while all delivering a product that consumers love.”
Casandra Strauss, senior director, strategic technology & global digital strategy, Universal Music Group, joined with her Sony Music counterpart in standing up for copyright.
“It's a well known fact that a lot of these AI companies have trained by ingesting huge amounts of copyrighted material without permission, without a licence,” she said. “As Dennis mentioned, a lot of the digital market has grown through licences, through the protection of copyright that can enable this thriving sector.
“We do see a collaborative market developing. We do see actors who see the tremendous value of music and other creative output, and they are willing to come to the table and license. We want to find these companies, we want to engage with them and build sustainable businesses for them, as well as for us.
“Our leadership has been very vocal about this from day one, we've been advocating constantly. We're in ongoing conversations with tech companies. We're issuing public statements, we get involved in campaigns. For those of you in the UK and maybe outside, hopefully you will have seen the brilliant mobilisation of the creative communities and the Make It Fair campaign, the Is This What We Want? campaign. We think with a little bit of time, we'll have successful products and business models that will emerge that will be fair to everyone, and that's what we're looking forward to.”
IFPI Global Music Report 2025 launch: (L-R) IFPI's John Blewett, Victoria Oakley, Dennis Kooker, Stacey Tang, Casandra Strauss, Tega Oghenejobo, Kristen Burke, Isabel Garvey
On the positive side of AI, Strauss also acknowledged the creative opportunities – not least the role of artificial intelligence in enabling the completion of the final song by The Beatles, which topped the charts and won a Grammy.
“We, as a company, have long embraced innovation and technology – gaming, extended reality, we've been immersed in all of that,” said Strauss. “And really, AI is no different. We've embraced it in so many different ways. We hold a few patents in AI. We use it in business operations and marketing for creative assistance.
“Fundamentally, our focus is ensuring that AI technology is responsible, ethical and artist-centric, basically that it benefits artists, songwriters, rights-holders, the entire creative ecosystem."
She added: “We actually launched our Responsible AI initiative this year. We had two goals in mind for that. One is lobbying for guardrails – so setting some public policies, we outlined some basic guidelines for how AI should operate. But of course, very, very importantly, we're forging groundbreaking partnerships with the private sector in the AI space. So for example, we founded a historic partnership with our longtime partner, YouTube, that gives artists a seat at the table.”
That partnership enables artists to provide their opinion on AI development and monetisation. “This is really huge, but it’s not just about the big artists,” she said.
UMG is also working with Roland, Endel and SoundLabs’ AI vocal tool MicDrop, including for creating the Spanish language version of Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree.
We, as a company, have long embraced innovation and technology – AI is no different
Casandra Strauss
“I feel very, very positive about the opportunity and optimistic about the opportunity,” said Kooker. “There's a reason that music is always impacted early in these disruptive technology cycles. It's because it's an emotional, passionate product that almost every human on Earth enjoys. It's why so many entrepreneurs want to work with music, and it's why the large platforms need a music strategy, because it attracts, acquires and it retains customers. So if done right, we should create a whole new way of listening and engaging with music in this next chapter.”
Acknowledging the time it takes for new tech to bed in, such as the DSPs, the Sony Music exec warned of a “lot of heavy lifting, a lot of testing, a lot of trial and error”.
“But history says we will find the next great format, and with that, I think there will be a very exciting future,” he added.
Kooker suggested AI could also help to identify infringements.
“From a Sony Music perspective, when I think about our strategy, we think about both offensive and defensive strategies,” he said. “One of the things that is critical for us to do and deliver is protecting our artists and protecting their works.”
“Our business model now hinges on us licensing our content, so being proactive in the market is absolutely essential,” he added. “It won't get solved overnight. It will take a long time to figure out the new business models, the products to be developed. And I think that's one of the challenges, because everything feels like a here and now. It's immediate, it's in our face. Even the policy that's going to be set today is going to continue to impact for the next decade and beyond. And it's really important to think about the long term, not just the immediate.”
“I think there is a huge challenge ahead, both one about making that opportunity come to fruition and one about ensuring that policymakers around the world understand what the opportunity is, but also what the risk is if they don't get it right,” said IFPI’s Victoria Oakley. “We have a very clear ask, highlighted in recent weeks here in the UK, through the Make It Fair campaign and the silent record. The message is very clear. Our job is to make sure that policymakers are hearing that and building a generative AI system and set of rules that can really work for both tech and artists.”
The IFPI session also featured:
Stacey Tang, co-president, RCA UK, who discussed success with Myles Smith and innovation with his Fortnite performance.
Tega Oghenejobo, president and chief operating officer, Mavin Global, who spoke about partnering with UMG.
Isabel Garvey, chief operating officer, Warner Music UK, who opened up about data and artist partnerships, including the long-term career growth of Charli XCX.
Kristen Burke, president, Warner Music Canada, on setting up a new label based on cross-cultural collaboration.
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