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Sub-Saharan Africa's recorded music revenues grew 15.2% in 2025 to $120 million, and digital income grew faster still. But South Africa takes 78.1% of that, collecting societies across the continent took in only €90 million in 2024, and nobody publishes fraud rates for African markets. For African artists the growth is real; the plumbing that turns plays into payments is not keeping up.
Industryvia IFPI
Promusicae and AGEDI, which compile Spain's official charts, have adopted IFPI's principles for recordings made with generative AI. A track can chart only if it is substantially human made, made with an authorised AI service and labelled for listeners. None of those terms is defined, and the Spanish announcement mentions no way to appeal.
AIvia AGEDI
IFPI's principles keep AI-made recordings off official charts unless they are substantially human made and built on licensed tools. Luminate, which supplies Billboard's chart data, will tag fully AI tracks rather than block them, and Billboard has promised to identify AI songs without publishing an eligibility rule.
AIvia IFPI
IFPI says recorded music revenue grew 6.4% to US$31.7bn in 2025, with growth in every region and Latin America fastest at 17.1%. The percentages point to the Global South, but the dollars still mostly come from the US, Canada and Europe, and the fast-growing regions grew more slowly than a year earlier. Here is how an independent artist should read the map.
Industryvia IFPI
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