A new report has confirmed that more new music is being recorded and uploaded to streaming services than at any point in history. According to Luminate (via Music Business Worldwide), an average of 120,000 new IRSCs — or individual tracks — were uploaded to streaming platforms per day in Q1 2023.
This works out to more than 10 million tracks uploaded across audio and video platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and more during the first three months of 2023. The 120,000 per day average represents a 28.5% percent increase from all of 2022, when 93,400 average tracks were uploaded per day.
Luminate, which supplies sales data for the Billboard music charts, projects that over 43 million new tracks will be uploaded to music streaming services this year if the trend continues. Last year, more than 34 million total tracks were uploaded.
Music fans are also streaming more than ever. Global on-demand audio streams were up 23% year over year in Q1 2023 in comparison to Q1 2022, with a 13% increase in the US. Latin, country, and world music are the fastest-growing genres this year.
It’s worth noting that a large number of the tracks are literally white noise, with a growing number being AI-generated. Some of the most high profile AI-generated songs of late have been a track using faked vocals from Drake and The Weeknd that went viral in April, which was followed by a “collaboration” between Bad Bunny and Rihanna.
Be sure to read our rundown of all the music streaming services to pick the best one for your needs.
