What is the music industry going to do about unpopular music?
It’s a debate that’s poised to rage harder than ever in 2025 — thanks to new statistics revealed by market monitor and analysis platform Luminate on January 15.
According to Luminate’s 2024 Year-End Music Report, 202 million separate tracks were available on audio streaming services at the end of last year. (That’s ‘tracks’ as in files with their own distinct ISRCs, or International Standard Recording Codes.)
That 202 million figure was up by approximately 18 million (+9.8%) YoY, when compared to the equivalent figure from Luminate’s prior year report (184 million).
In simpler terms: on average, comfortably more than a million new tracks were uploaded to music streaming services per month in 2024.
(Indeed, Luminate calculates that there was an average of 99,000 new ISRCs delivered to DSPs like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube etc. each day in 2024, down slightly on 2023 when 103,500 were uploaded daily.)
Important numbers… but there’s an even hotter talking point sticking out from Luminate’s new report.
It’s this: Nearly half (93.2 million) of the 202 million tracks available on streaming services in 2024 were played no more than 10 times each last year… (MBW Explains)
