All hail, heavy metal – the fast growing genre in the world Hail!
The digital music distribution company Tunecore made the announcement based off their streaming and download numbers for 2018. Based in New York, Tunecore provides distribution, publishing and licensing services for independent artists, allowing them to keep 100% of their digital earnings, while distributing to such platforms as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Google Play and others.
While reporting on the earnings ($83 million in their first quarter of 2019—a 21 percent increase from last year), Tunecore explained that of the 83% increase in total streams, the fastest growing genre was metal. Here is the list of fastest growing genres:
Heavy metal – 154 percent increase
J-Pop – 133 percent increase
R&B/Soul – 68 percent increase
K-Pop – 58 percent increase
World music – 57 percent increase
Instrumental – 42 percent increase
And where streaming is seeing the biggest growth:
Africa – 146 percent growth
Asia – 52 percent growth
Oceania – 38 percent growth
Europe – 35 percent growth
South America – 32 percent growth
North America – 31 percent growth
The most notable countries for streaming growth are:
Morocco – 243% increase
South Africa – 125% increase
Italy – 108% increase
India – 89% increase
Turkey – 81% increase
Czech Republic – 72% increase
Tunecore has distributed over $1.5 billion to artists. Total streams and downloads of music by TuneCore's 250,000 worldwide artists hit 199.3 billion in the past year, a 83% increase over 2017.
"TuneCore is the only global platform that pays artists 100% of what they earn from digital streams and downloads, while also meeting all of their needs across distribution, promotion and publishing administration," said Scott Ackerman, CEO of TuneCore. "In 2019 we're seeing great momentum in helping our customers build sustainable careers by finding new income across formats and channels."
Of course, these are all relative numbers. Metal is growing relative to where it was a year ago, but it's still a positive sign for our beloved genre.
