-The Top 22 – Triple A, Indie, Alternative Rock
That’s up from an average of 93,400 new tracks per day in 2022…
By Paul Marszalek
TheTop22.com
Double-digit growth continues on the creator side as artists currently combine to release 112,000 new tracks each day, according to Luminate’s Midyear Report 2023.
Luminate has been tracking the number of ISRCs, International Standard Recording Codes, which are 12-digit codes that individually identify each song. Since 2018, each year has seen double-digit growth in ISRCs, with the exception of a COVID-affected 2020, which was flat.
Of those 112,000 new songs each day, only 3.3% are delivered through major distribution channels. It’s interesting to consider the disconnect between these numbers and the content of radio playlists, which are dominated by majors. One could almost invert these numbers, and perhaps it’s a reason for commercial radio’s ratings malaise.
On the other hand, there are reportedly 38 million tracks on Spotify that have never been played, so the increasing amount of clutter makes the good stuff that much harder to find.
A major reason for the explosion in new tracks is due to a maturation of international markets. Europe is finally catching up to North America, and nascent streaming markets are exploding.
