Live music royalties reach a record €1.4bn, CISAC report shows
Concert royalties for songwriters hit a record €1.4bn in 2025, and live and background music overtook TV and radio for the first time.
In this article
Royalties paid to songwriters and composers when their music is performed at concerts reached a record €1.4bn worldwide in 2025. The figure comes from the annual Global Collections Report by CISAC, the international confederation of authors' societies, published on 4 November 2026.
Live music collections grew by 14.9% in a year. Together with background music played in shops, bars, hotels and restaurants, the "live and background" category has overtaken television and radio for the first time, becoming the second-largest source of music royalties after digital.
Across all art forms, societies in the CISAC network collected a record €15.5bn for creators, up 11.3%, with music accounting for €14.06bn. Europe remains the biggest region by far, bringing in €8.09bn, just over half of the global total.
Why the live figure matters
Streaming still dominates the royalty story. Digital music collections rose 27.9% to €6.41bn, or 45.6% of the music total. But the live numbers show that concerts, festivals and events remain a growing income stream for the people who write songs, not only for those who perform them.
For music alone, live and background collections rose 7.3% to €3.62bn, while TV and radio fell 3% to €3.32bn. Put simply, money from rooms full of people now outweighs money from broadcasters, a shift that likely reflects busy concert calendars as much as changing broadcast habits.
Some of the headline growth needs context. The report includes the Mechanical Licensing Collective in the US for the first time, and it accounts for roughly 52% of the year's overall increase. Europe grew more modestly, by 6.2%, with its digital collections up 13.1% to €2.57bn.
Who actually receives this money
These are authors' royalties, paid to songwriters, composers and publishers through collecting societies such as GEMA in Germany, SACEM in France or SIAE in Italy. They are separate from a performer's fee. A covers band earns its booking fee, while the royalties for its setlist go to the writers of those songs.
That makes the figure most relevant to musicians who play their own material. If you write the songs you perform, a licensed concert can generate royalties on top of your fee, as long as your works are registered and your setlist reaches your society. Musicians on Mucanto set their own prices and choose where they play; for original artists, registered live royalties are a second, smaller layer of income from the same gigs.
A record with a warning attached
CISAC presented the results with caution. Its director general, Gadi Oron, called the growth "a strong and encouraging signal", as quoted by IMRO, but warned that past growth cannot be taken for granted as artificial intelligence spreads. CISAC president Björn Ulvaeus said in the release carried by Record of the Day that "human creativity is not something to be replaced or bypassed".
The report gives regional rather than country-by-country figures in the material published so far, so musicians in individual markets should watch for their own society's annual results to see how local live income is moving.
What to do
Join a collecting society if you write or co-write songs you perform, and register every work with the correct splits.
Submit setlists promptly after concerts and festivals. Most societies have online portals and reporting deadlines.
Plan for gigs abroad: ask your home society how performances in other countries are reported, so royalties can find their way back to you.
Check licensing with organisers. Rules for private events and small venues vary by country, so confirm who is responsible before the date.
Keep one record of dates, venues and setlists, which makes missing payments much easier to spot.
For event hosts, the report is a reminder that music licences are how writers get paid for the songs that fill a room. A quick question to your venue about its licence is usually enough.
Sources
IMRO: summary of the CISAC Global Collections Report, including Europe's €8.09bn total and comments from Gadi Oron, 4 November 2026
Record of the Day: CISAC press release with figures by income source and region, including live music's 14.9% rise to €1.4bn, 4 November 2026
This article was created with the help of AI. A Mucanto editor checked the facts and sources and approved it before publication. How we work
