Consumption and supply of music
How has the development in sales of recorded music progressed? Is most music sold digitally or physically? And how many registered musical works are there? This set of statistics highlights the consumption and supply of recorded music and live music.
Selected statistics on Consumption and supply of music
Recorded music sales
The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments.
Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire.
Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality.
The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000.
The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register.
Revenue from music sales
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autor | |||
| Region Hovedstaden | 168,727,202 | 143,089,372 | 159,161,744 |
| Region Sjælland | 15,089,290 | 9,107,118 | 14,473,805 |
| Region Syddanmark | 12,184,534 | 13,743,367 | 14,955,291 |
| Region Midtjylland | 28,766,246 | 24,932,104 | 28,358,308 |
| Region Nordjylland | 4,189,827 | 3,562,383 | 4,495,825 |
| Region unknown | 17,574,919 | 14,266,757 | 21,049,352 |
| Publisher | |||
| Region Hovedstaden | 140,979,921 | 154,210,330 | 96,412,773 |
| Region Sjælland | 5,190,127 | 641,757 | 3,820,073 |
| Region Syddanmark | 2,560,394 | 402,778 | 1,042,985 |
| Region Midtjylland | 4,637,924 | 1,410,420 | 2,692,551 |
| Region Nordjylland | 701,608 | 306,794 | 1,564,930 |
| Region unknown | 276,491,902 | 113,148,341 | 205,606,997 |
The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments.
Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire.
Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality.
The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000.
The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register.
Audience at concerts
The statistics is based on crediting data from KODA, reports from regional venues, regional orchestras and operationally supported music festivals to the Palaces and Culture Agency, as well as manual collection of information about music festivals from the festivals and other relevant websites.
Major music festivals are identified by combining different sources, e.g. Gaffa and Festivalskits. The number of concerts and audiences held is collected manually from the festivals and other relevant websites.
Information about industry, sector, etc. obtained from Statistics Denmark Company Statistics.
Concerts
The statistics is based on crediting data from KODA, reports from regional venues, regional orchestras and operationally supported music festivals to the Palaces and Culture Agency, as well as manual collection of information about music festivals from the festivals and other relevant websites.
Major music festivals are identified by combining different sources, e.g. Gaffa and Festivalskits. The number of concerts and audiences held is collected manually from the festivals and other relevant websites.
Information about industry, sector, etc. obtained from Statistics Denmark Company Statistics.
Registered works of music
The statistics Trade with music rights are based on data from the record companies' trade association (IFPI) and the organizations Koda and Gramex which manages rights payments.
Sales of music works are determined as the music companies' total turnover from physical sales, digital downloads and streaming. The numbers are reported to Statistics Denmark by IFPI. IFPI is the international trade association for record companies. Their statistics are generally given high credibility. The nationality of the works is also part of the report from IFPI. Where the composer is domiciled outside Denmark, these are international repertoire. Is the composer based in Denmark, the repertoire is considered to be Danish. It is a requirement that the recordings mainly are carried out by Danish artists or by artists resident in Denmark for the case of Danish repertoire. An album can be described as Danish if at least 75 per cent of the tracks meet the conditions for being Danish repertoire.
Payment for the rights to composers and songwriters every time their musical work played in public. These rights are handled by Koda. There are also paid for composer and songwriter rights when the music recorded on CDs, tapes, film, video and other sound carriers. These so-called mechanical rights are handled by the NCB. Gramex represents the rights of the performing artists and the record companies when a work of music is played in public. Finally, the copying of music and the sale of blank media that can subsequently be used for copying, an exercise of rights. These rights are handled by Copydan. The rights payments come from central and authoritative sources. Koda has a state concession to manage music rights and collects information on music played publicly in Denmark. Data is used to calculate the remuneration of the right holders and is assessed to be of high quality.
The number of musical works is based on Koda's reports regarding the number of registered musical works. Musical works with at least one right holder that is a member of Koda is included. At this time, it is not possible to distinguish between songs and other forms of musical works. Musical works here include ringtones, advertising music, background music in e.g. films or TV series, and music that has never been published. Data has been corrected retroactively for the period 2000-2015. In 2015, Koda changed its definition of what a Koda piece of music is. Previously, a work was understood to be a Koda work if a majority of the copyright holders were KODA members. Since 2015, all musical works where at least one copyright holder is a member of Koda are considered a Koda work, . In 2015, works that had previously not been considered Koda works were thus included as Koda musical works, which also included musical works from back in time. To handle the definition change, imputation has been made for 2015 based on the number of new Koda works in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017. The difference between the imputed number of new registered musical works in 2015 and the original number of newly registered works due to the definition change has been equally distributed over the years 1926-2014. The time series has been corrected for this change with a recalculation of the number of works back to 2000, which is the first year of the statistics, so that the works between 1926 and 1999 are included for the year 2000.
The number of musical authors is calculated on the basis of a special data delivery that contains registered musical works and information about the rights holders. Data contains the social security number (cpr.nr) on the authors who are not record labels etc., which makes it possible to enrich data via Statistics Denmark's population register.
Music genres listened to by the population
The Cultural Habits Survey data is compiled from questionnaire surveys among a random sample and from demographic information drawn from Statistics Denmark's population register. The random sample is drawn randomly with equal likelihood for each person in the population. Persons without a registered address in the Civil Registration System, with a town hall address or with a non-public address are not eligible to be drawn. Every quarter a sample of 15,100 persons is drawn. The 2025 survey was not collected in the first quarter, but instead with a double sample in the second quarter. This sample is divided into four groups which each participant is assigned to with equal likeliness. The groups are used used to divide respondents across four different versions of the survey questionnaire.
Survey questionnaire for the Cultural Habits Survey 2025 in Danish.
The statistic on membership for youth and outdoor activities organisations is compiled on the basis of reports from the following organisations:
- The Danish Scout Association
- FDF - a Christian organisation for children and youth in Denmark
- The Green Girl Guides in Denmark
- YMCA Scouts in Denmark
- Danish Baptist Scout Association
- DUI-LEG og VIRKE - a children's association
- DCU (Danish Camping Association)
- The Danish Society for Nature Conservation
- Danish Association of Hunters
- The Danish Horticultural Society
- The Danish Ramblers' Association
- DOF - The Danish Ornithological Society
Frequency of concert attendance
The Cultural Habits Survey data is compiled from questionnaire surveys among a random sample and from demographic information drawn from Statistics Denmark's population register. The random sample is drawn randomly with equal likelihood for each person in the population. Persons without a registered address in the Civil Registration System, with a town hall address or with a non-public address are not eligible to be drawn. Every quarter a sample of 15,100 persons is drawn. The 2025 survey was not collected in the first quarter, but instead with a double sample in the second quarter. This sample is divided into four groups which each participant is assigned to with equal likeliness. The groups are used used to divide respondents across four different versions of the survey questionnaire.
Survey questionnaire for the Cultural Habits Survey 2025 in Danish.
The statistic on membership for youth and outdoor activities organisations is compiled on the basis of reports from the following organisations:
- The Danish Scout Association
- FDF - a Christian organisation for children and youth in Denmark
- The Green Girl Guides in Denmark
- YMCA Scouts in Denmark
- Danish Baptist Scout Association
- DUI-LEG og VIRKE - a children's association
- DCU (Danish Camping Association)
- The Danish Society for Nature Conservation
- Danish Association of Hunters
- The Danish Horticultural Society
- The Danish Ramblers' Association
- DOF - The Danish Ornithological Society
On the statistics – documentation, sources and method
See the documentation of statistics to learn more:
The purpose of the statistics Trade with music rights is to estimate the sale of recorded music in the form of physical sales, downloads and streaming. In addition, the statistics calculate the extent of payments for the use of music for public play and by reproduction, as well as the property rights income for composers and performers. Statistics Denmark published the statistics for the first time in 2014. In 2023, the statistics were expanded with statistics on the number of registered musical works and the number of authors of music, who are copyright holders.