Report: Production music generates $1 Billion

Bedroom producers, keep going. Production music, those unobtrusive works that so often breathe life into film and TV, is a billion dollar global industry.

For the first time, the U.S.-based Production Music Association has crunched the numbers on the production music space, which supports tens of thousands of songwriters, composers and musicians and is found to generate about US$1 billion worldwide.

The result, which is roughly three times the value of Australia’s recorded music industry, according to ARIA, is arrived at from a proprietary PMA study and includes synch, publishing and other profit centres and will be presented at the fourth annual Production Music Conference next month in Hollywood.

Not surprisingly, the U.S. accounts for the lion’s share of annual revenue at roughly US$500 million, explains Joe Saba, composer and vice chairman at the not for profit PMA, though the figures are admittedly on the “conservative” side.

Despite its capacity to both entertain and earn, production music “has yet to get the full respect or recognition it deserves,” Saba tells Variety. “Today, every label now has a substantial commitment to this part of the industry: Warner/Chappell, BMG, Sony and Universal. Then you have mini majors like Ole,” and lots of independents that range from two-person garage startups to well-funded ventures. “It’s a whole ecosystem and with the influx of big players everyone has had to step up their game,” Saba adds.

Australia’s production music professionals are recognised each year at the Screen Music Awards, which are presented by APRA AMCOS in conjunction with the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Nominations for the 2017 event will be announced in early October.