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What is the total addressable market for music makers (instrumentalists, rappers, producers, engineers,) and creatives (photographers, videographers, graphic designers) in the music space?
Hello and thank you for your question about the market size of music makers globally and in the U.S. Experts agree that there is no way to calculate a definitive number of musicians either globally or in one country, simply because too many of the artists exist below the radar of statistics takers. However, there are a number of statistics that help to show the breadth and dynamism of the industry as a whole, which I think are very relevant to your purposes. Those statistics show, among other things, that there are nearly 4 million jobs tied to the music industry worldwide, and a potential audience of more than double that when including musicians at every level.
In terms of evaluating industry growth and connected employment, the two most useful resources I found were this report on the state of the music business globally, and this one on the impact of cultural industries, which has figures for music broken out separately. Both contain a lot of details that will be useful in creating your funding proposal.
MUSICIANS AND PRODUCERS
U.S. Labour Statistics indicate that there were less than 33,000 professional musicians in 2013, and that that number had declined in recent years. However, that statistic and the trend are of limited use, since this only registers those who are employed by others and who generate the majority of their income through playing music. In order to estimate the number of active musicians, we would need to account for the self-employed and part-time artists.
One way of triangulating the number of musicians, at least in the United States, is to look at the number of artists who have registered with copyright organizations. It is not strictly musicians who use these services, as music publishers and writers (non-performers) also register their work, however, it can give us a rough guideline.
ASCAP currently claims over 600,000 members, while BMI claims 750,000. SESAC, an invite-only publishing rights service, has another 30,000. Although there is nothing prohibiting artists from getting membership in multiple organizations, most of them choose only one.
So, taking into account only those who have registered their music in order to protect their copyright, there are nearly 1.4 million artists in America. (Furthermore, the membership numbers are increasing: in 2012, ASCAP had 435,000 members and BMI had 500,000.)
However, the majority of independent musicians never register their music. In order to help account for them, we can look at the artists registered with sites where they can upload content for purchase directly.
Soundcloud, the largest and most easily accessible of those sites, had more than 10 million active artists from all over the world, as of 2014.
AUXILIARY CREATIVE EMPLOYMENT
It is even more difficult to isolate the number of people in creative industries who are connected to music than it is to estimate the number of musicians, because most do not limit themselves to music industry work only. In order to come up with figures that could help, I instead looked at the number of jobs associated with the music industry. These numbers include jobs outside creative fields, but does give an idea of the employment reach of music.
A report issued by CISAC (the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) in 2015 stated that there were 3.97 million workers around the world whose jobs were tied to the music industry. In their calculations, they also accounted for work in the "informal economy", not included in standard industry data, making it the most robust data set available on the subject.
They also note that cultural industries as a whole are dominated by young workers; more 15-29 year olds are employed than in any other sector.
In the details of its report on the music industry in 2016, IFPI estimates that the music industry is responsible for:
While the number of purely creative participants in the music-related workforce is lower than what is listed here, it is the best data available on auxiliary work (such as design and photography). (Billboard Magazine notes that the CISAC study is actually the first to look at the broader impact on revenue and employment of creative industries.)
FINANCIAL INFORMATION
One method of evaluating the health of the music industry (and therefore of affiliated industries) is to look at sales trends in key areas. Growth of the music industry inched upward in 2015, 3.2% over the previous year. 2015 was also the first time that worldwide digital sales eclipsed the sales of physical media. Consumers overwhelmingly flocked to streaming over purchasing, with subscription services showing a 93% uptick in sales.
Spotify, generally considered the leader among streaming services worldwide, has shown rapid financial growth every year since 2008. In 2013, it recorded 45% growth in revenue, and in 2015, its revenues grew 80%. In 2014, its payout to artists doubled from the previous year, to $1B. In 2015, those payments increased a further 85%.
SUMMARY
While the exact numbers of musicians and associated creative workers may not be calculable, it is clear that the music industry as a whole is responsible for millions of jobs and billions of dollars globally. With barriers to entry to music being lower than ever, the total potential audience of musicians has swollen far beyond government and official industry estimates.
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