While some major recorded music markets, like the US and India, have seen a slowdown in revenue growth recently, the same can’t be said for Italy.
Europe’s third-largest music market continues to go from strength to strength, with recorded music trade turnover rising 9.7% year-over-year to EUR €208.1 million in the first half of 2025.
That’s equal to USD $236.1 million at the average exchange rate for Q2 2025.
The growth rate marks an acceleration from the 8.5% YoY growth Italy’s recorded music market saw in 2024.
Streaming revenues grew even faster, rising 9.9% YoY to €166.4 million ($188.8 million).
Of that, €113.3 million ($128.5 million) came from subscription streaming, where revenues grew 12.7% YoY, according to data released on Wednesday (August 27) by the Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI).
Maybe even more remarkable is that physical music revenue grew faster than digital in H1 2025, led by vinyl sales, which jumped 17% YoY to €21.9 million ($24.8 million). Even CD sales grew, rising 4.7% to €11.0 million ($12.5 million).
That was partly offset by a 4.5% YoY decline in synch revenues, to €6.5 million ($7.4 million).
A great deal of this success can be attributed to Italy’s own artists, who occupied 90% of the slots in the top 10 album and singles charts in H1 2025, FIMI said.
Italian singer/songwriter OLLY’s Tutta Vita was the top-selling album (physical, download and free and premium streaming) of H1 2025, according to data from FIMI/GfK, and his single Balroda Nostalgia topped the singles charts for H1.
In fact, among the top 25 albums, Bad Bunny’s Debí tirar más fotos was the only non-Italian title, FIMI noted.
The dominance of local artists in Italy reflects a shift seen in many countries – particularly in Europe – in which local acts that were once sidelined on the radio in favor of major international acts have found greater prominence on streaming platforms.
FIMI also noted a shift in consumption of physical music (vinyl, CDs and cassettes).
“For the first time, this chart is more oriented toward contemporary repertoire, leaving residual space for legacy catalog titles,” the industry group said in a report earlier this month.Music Business Worldwide
