The global music royalty ecosystem in 2025 presents an extraordinary inflection point for African creators.
According to new data from the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), global creator royalties reached a record €13.97 billion. Music alone accounted for €12.59 billion, representing 90 percent of all collections and delivering strong year-on-year growth of 7.2 percent.
These numbers matter, but the real story goes deeper. Three powerful forces are coming together at the same time. First is the global rise of African music. Second is the dominance of digital platforms in how music is consumed. Third is the growing ability of creators to properly register, track, and collect royalties worldwide.
At Afro Soundtrack, we see this shift clearly in our own 2025 collection data. For the first time in music history, African creators now have the demand, the platforms, and the infrastructure needed to earn at a truly global scale.
Understanding Global Music Royalty Collections in 2025
CISAC reports that total global royalties grew by 6.6 percent year over year, continuing a long-term upward trend.
Music remains the largest creative sector by a wide margin. Other creative sectors contribute far less in comparison. This confirms an important reality. Music royalties are the biggest and fastest-growing source of income for creators worldwide.
For African music creators, this is where sustainable income exists. However, that income is only realized when rights are properly registered and administered.
Digital Music Royalties Surpass €5 Billion for the First Time
The year 2024 marked a major milestone. Digital music royalties exceeded €5 billion for the first time, reaching €5.01 billion with growth of 10.8 percent.
This reflects a major shift in how music earns money. Since 2015, digital collections have grown sevenfold, an increase of nearly 600 percent in less than a decade.
Digital revenue now represents 39.8 percent of all music income globally, making it the single largest revenue source in the industry.
For African artists, songwriters, producers, and session musicians, this shift is especially important. Digital platforms remove many of the barriers that once limited access to global audiences. Unlike traditional radio or television, digital platforms make every stream, video view, and social media use measurable and collectible.
Our 2025 Afro Soundtrack data shows this clearly. We collected royalties from streaming platforms, video services, and social media platforms that would have gone unclaimed without proper registration and monitoring.
How Afro Soundtrack Collects Royalties for African Music Creators
At Afro Soundtrack, we function as a comprehensive music publishing administration service specifically designed for African music creators.
Our process ensures maximum royalty collection across all territories and revenue sources. Our process focuses on five pillars:
- Early and accurate global registration
- Multi-territory collection infrastructure
- Active monitoring of usage and reports
- Ownership dispute resolution
- Transparent, territory-by-territory reporting
In 2025 alone, we recovered income from works that would otherwise have remained unclaimed, including a catalog title with over 100 million streams that had been wrongly claimed.
Top Digital Service Providers in Our Collections
Our 2025 data shows the top five digital platforms paying royalties to our clients:
- Apple Music
- Spotify
- YouTube
- Audiomack
- TikTok
Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube have been the top three contributors since the second quarter of 2025, with Apple and Spotify leading consistently since Q4 2024.
YouTube and Audiomack saw strong growth in 2025. Many fans consume Afrobeats on YouTube Music, and the combination of advertising revenue and subscriptions makes YouTube particularly valuable for visual-driven African music.
Audiomack has also become a meaningful revenue source. Built for African and Caribbean audiences, it now delivers income that many artists did not have access to just a few years ago.
TikTok was the biggest surprise. It did not appear among our top contributors before 2025. In the second quarter of 2025, TikTok royalties rose sharply and continued growing through the rest of the year. Early projections suggest this growth will continue into 2026.
With global music subscriptions reaching 818 million in 2024 and expected to hit 1 billion by 2027, subscription-based platforms will continue to expand royalty opportunities for creators.
North America Leads in Speed and Recovery
Our data shows North America accounting for 83 percent of our collections in 2025: United States 68.1 percent, Canada 14.9 percent.
This aligns with CISAC data showing North America generated €3.5 billion in music royalties, with 10 percent growth. The United States alone accounted for €3.14 billion, growing nearly 11 percent year over year.
North America leads for three key reasons.
First is speed. Royalties typically arrive within six to nine months, often much faster than other regions.
Second is subscription value. The United States and Canada have some of the highest digital subscription prices in the world, which increases the value of each stream.
Third is historical recovery. In North America, it is sometimes possible to recover unclaimed royalties going back eight to ten years. Most other territories close claims permanently after 18 to 24 months.
If a song released in early 2023 was not registered until 2026, income from 2023 and 2024 would be lost in most regions outside North America. That money either sits unclaimed or is redistributed.
Africa’s Fastest-Growing Region Status
Africa posted its highest-ever growth at 14.2%, with total collections reaching $97 million.
This is the fastest growth rate of any region globally. While total figures are still smaller than Europe or North America, Africa is in a steep growth phase.
For comparison:
- Europe grew 6.7 percent to €7.6 billion
- North America grew 10 percent to €3.5 billion
- Asia-Pacific grew 2.9 percent to €1.84 billion
Afro Soundtrack data shows Africa contributed 12.4 percent of our total collections in 2025, led by Nigeria.
As copyright infrastructure continues to improve, early registrants will capture disproportionate value.
Regional Performance and Emerging Markets
At Afro Soundtrack, we collect royalties from every major music territory worldwide.
Our 2025 data shows Europe contributing 2.4% to our collections, led by the UK. While this percentage seems small compared to North America’s 83%, it represents growing opportunity as European collection societies process our registrations and distributions catch up to consumption patterns.
The CISAC report provides comprehensive regional breakdowns that illuminate opportunity areas for our work:
Europe remains the largest market by total volume. European collections reached €7.6 billion with 6.7% growth.
For our clients with diaspora audiences and growing European fan bases, we’re actively collecting from societies across the continent.
Central and Eastern Europe delivered the fastest regional growth. CEE was the fastest-growing region for music royalties, with collections rising 17.9% year-over-year to €470 million. Digital royalties in CEE rose 20.2% year-over-year.
However, digital still makes up only 13.9% of the regional total in CEE, with broadcast dominating at 43.1%.
This means radio and TV play generates significant income, formats where African music is increasingly prevalent.
Understanding Usage Periods and Payment Timing
One of the most important but misunderstood aspects of music royalties is the time lag between consumption and compensation.
Our 2025 data provides clear evidence of this temporal pattern.
In our 2025 collections, we found that pre-2022 income did come through, with 2024 usage generating the highest 2025 payments.
This means that most of the streaming that took place in 2024, we’re only now being paid for in 2025.
Usage from 2023 was the second-highest contributor, meaning those streams also contributed significant income in 2025.
We can see that 2025 usage is picking up pace to catch up, and we expect to see better increases from usage that happened in 2025 showing up in our 2026 collections.
This temporal architecture creates both challenge and opportunity. It’s why early registration is absolutely critical.
We were able to recover some income from 2022 and earlier for North America mostly.
We couldn’t recover that far back for other regions because there’s an active collection period, typically 18 months to 24 months maximum, and if you miss that window, the income is permanently forfeited.
But for North America, you’re able to recover as far back as 8 to 10 years, though it’s not guaranteed, and it’s certainly not available for other territories.
The Global Royalty Payment Timeline
The royalty distribution timeline typically takes six to nine months from usage to payment.
If you registered in late 2024, North American income would likely arrive by mid-2025. European income would follow later, often toward the end of 2025 or early 2026. Completing a full global cycle usually takes about 18 months.
This sequential pattern creates predictable cash flow: North American income arrives in Q3-Q4 after registration, European income six to nine months later, then Asian, Latin American, and other territories contribute additional waves.
At Afro Soundtrack, we provide detailed projections so clients can budget and plan around these predictable payment rhythms. This enables continuous operations without requiring external financing between distribution periods.
The Registration Imperative: Timing Creates Exponential Advantages
Registration timing is the single most important factor determining total lifetime royalty collection.
Two creators can release identical songs with identical success and the one who registers early will collect two to three times more income than the other.
Remember, delayed registration results in permanent losses, not temporary delays.
Addressing Fraud and Protecting Your Revenue
Bad actors exploit weaknesses in registration systems to claim royalties for works they did not create or invent fake titles that divert income from legitimate songwriters.
At Afro Soundtrack, protecting clients from fraudulent claims is core to our service.
In 2025, we resolved work disputes on registrations wrongfully claimed by wrong parties.
One significant case involved a work with over 100 million streams wrongfully claimed by a party with no legitimate ownership. We recovered the work and ensured all future income flows to the rightful creator.
We’re working on similar disputes for other clients, some involving tens of millions of streams and substantial back income.
With the rise of AI-generated content and vast volume of registrations, the risk from fraudulent claims has increased.
We ensure our clients’ registrations include comprehensive documentation that withstands scrutiny and prevents fraudulent competing claims.
Our Success in Securing Placements and Licensing
Beyond royalty collection, we actively create new income opportunities.
In 2025, we secured 20 placements across four productions for our clients, including film soundtracks, television series, advertising campaigns, and video game integrations.
The synchronization licensing market represents substantial income opportunities beyond streaming royalties.
A single well-placed sync can generate more income than millions of streams, and introduces music to new audiences who seek it out on streaming platforms, creating a multiplier effect.
What Comes Next for African Music
Several catalytic trends will amplify African music collection opportunity in 2026:
- Subscription Growth: MiDIA forecasts music subscriptions growing from 818 million in 2024 to 1 billion by 2027. Every registered work benefits from increased consumption.
- Revenue Per User Expansion: Futuresource Consulting predicts a 7% compound annual growth rate for music digital revenues between 2025 and 2028 as services shift focus from subscriber acquisition to revenue per user. Every stream will generate higher payouts over time.
- TikTok Monetization Maturation: Our Q1 2026 projections show continued TikTok growth. Clients who dominate TikTok cultural trends will see influence convert into substantial income.
- African Infrastructure Investment: Multiple African countries are investing in copyright infrastructure and collection society capacity. The current 12.4% African contribution to our collections will multiply substantially.
- Catalog Valuation Recognition: The music catalog acquisition market increasingly recognizes African catalog value. Clients with properly registered, comprehensively collected catalogs are well-positioned for catalog sales, advances against future royalties, or joint ventures.
Why Choose Afro Soundtrack for Your Music Publishing Administration
We’ve built our entire operation around the specific needs of African music creators:
- African Music Expertise: We understand cultural context, consumption patterns, and market dynamics in ways generalist collection services don’t.
- Speed and Efficiency: We prioritize fast registration. Many 2025 clients received their first royalty payments within two quarters of signing.
- Comprehensive Worldwide Coverage: We collect from every region where your music generates income.
- Transparent Communication: Our detailed reporting ensures you understand exactly where income comes from.
- Proactive Recovery: We actively pursue historical unclaimed royalties, dispute fraudulent claims, and recover income you didn’t know existed.
- Additional Revenue Streams: Through sync licensing efforts, we create income opportunities beyond streaming royalties.
Conclusion
The convergence of record-breaking global collections, digital’s dominance crossing €5 billion, and Africa achieving 14.2% growth creates an unprecedented wealth capture moment for African music creators.
At Afro Soundtrack, we’ve built the infrastructure to ensure African music creators capture their fair share of the global music royalty market. Our 2025 collection data proves the model works.
The only variable is whether you’re registered and actively collecting.
Music Creators who register early and work with us will capture generational wealth. Those who delay will forfeit substantial income that can never be recovered.
Every stream, every play, and every use of your music should generate income. Afro Soundtrack ensures that it does.
If you are ready to maximize your global royalties, the opportunity is now.
