2022 Year in Review: Music Industry

The category has grown significantly in terms of time spent online, with 43.1 billion total hours in the first 10 months of 2022. This was a 51% growth from the same period in 2019.

The Return to Live Music

After several years where concerts were nearly impossible to put on, and likely to be canceled, tours came back in full force in 2022. There was 27% more engagement on content about concerts from 2021 to 2022, and 35% more compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2019.

The concerts & festivals category has outpaced the growth of media & entertainment overall on social media, spiking in Spring 2022.

This interest in live music was reflected on ticket-buying platforms as well. In October 2022, Ticketmaster reached 51.6 million unique visitors, higher than any month in the past few years. Ticketmaster's mobile version was also the fastest growing m-commerce app this year, seeing 111% growth from August 2021-August 2022.

Music streaming stays strong

Just because people can get to live shows doesn’t mean they are giving up on streaming. Americans spent 23 million hours on Spotify from January to October 2022, 27% more than the same period in 2021 and 97% more than 2019.

Music videos are alive and well too, racking up 19.2 billion video views on YouTube year to date. Some of the top videos worldwide included Karol G's "Provenza" (312m views), Shakira and Rauw Alejandro's "Te Felicito" (243m), Harry Styles' "As It Was" (201m), and Bad Bunny's "Moscow Mule" (181m).¹

Several artists even embraced vertical video and released their music videos, or parts of them, on TikTok like Charlie Puth with "Lightswitch" (20.1m views), Tate McRae with "Don't Come Back" (14.2m), Meghan Trainor with "Made You Look" (13m), and Dove Cameron with "Boyfriend" (10m).²

Fans also tuned into traditional television to view music content, with 87.6 million hours spent watching the top four music award shows. The GRAMMY awards alone reached over 12 million households.

The Artists Making Waves

When we look at some of the most popular global album releases of 2022 by social media engagement, Korean stars Stray Kids and Black Pink take the top spots. With huge fan bases that are very social-media-savvy, Korean artists are finding major success around the world. Stray Kids have especially been blowing up on social media, with 1.1 billion actions on their owned pages across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Spanish-language artists also made their mark this year, with Rosalia, Daddy Yankee, and Bad Bunny making an impact on social media. Many of the top music videos also came from Latin artists like Karol G and Shakira.

Taylor Swift had the top album for an American artist after breaking several streaming records with Midnights.

As people searched for connection, community, and creativity this year, music has clearly drawn large crowds both literally in person and in the online space. The industry has managed to bounce back beyond where it was pre-pandemic by embracing a multi-media experience, and it is certainly one to watch going into the new year. Stay tuned as we continue to cover major industry events!