Reports Music

Songwriters take the stage A new playbook for a new era

Report by Tatiana Cirisano and Fernanda Balzaretti
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20,000 foot view

The streaming era upended the already-fraught business of being a songwriter, pushing songwriters to secure new revenue streams and better deal terms. While the recorded music industry has responded to similar shifts with a flourishing artist services market, the same is not true for songwriters. This landmark report draws on MIDiA’s first-ever survey of more than 300 songwriters to understand their income distribution, evolving needs and challenges, and how the publishing industry can better serve them — to the benefit of not just songwriters and publishers but the music industry as a whole.

Key data and insights mentioned in this report:

  • Analysis of the songwriter market, including roles, career trajectory, and income
  • Analysis of goals and challenges of songwriters including different career lengths and trajectories
  • Comparison of the top social media uses for songwriting by age
  • Factors influencing deals signed, including publishing, co-publishing, and administration agreements
  • Tools and service popularity across songwriter segments

Survey data is based on MIDiA Research Songwriter Survey June 2024, Data is available by all consumers, age, markets, roles, income, and genre. This survey was fielded globally.

Table of contents:

Number of words: 11246

Number of pages: 48

Number of infographics: 20

Key insights

Section 1: Market dynamics

Section2: Songwriting today: Goals and challenges

Section 3: Songwriting tomorrow: Services and opportunities

Implications

Companies and brands mentioned: Apple Music, Arketek, BandLab, BigBang, Billboard, Billie Eilish, Björn Ulvaeus, BLACKPINK, BMI, Bonnie McKee, Concord, Create Music Group, Downtown Music Publishing, Dsign Music, Dua Lipa, Etsy, FINNEAS, Fiverr, G-Dragon, Jack Antonoff, Kendrick Lamar, Kobalt Music, Mechanical Licensing Collective, Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, National Music Publishers' Association, Performing Right Society, Songfinch, Songlorious, Songtrust, Soundbetter, Spotify, Teddy Park, the Hit, TikTok, Universal Music Publishing Group, USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Vocalist.ai, Vocalizr, Warner Music Group, and YouTube