Stock Music Market
Report ID: SQMIG50J2020
Report ID: SQMIG50J2020
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Report ID:
SQMIG50J2020 |
Region:
Global |
Published Date: February, 2026
Pages:
157
|Tables:
143
|Figures:
78
Global Stock Music Market size was valued at USD 1.5 Billion in 2024 and is poised to grow from USD 1.62 Billion in 2025 to USD 3.05 Billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period (2026-2033).
The global stock music market is on track to continue its steady growth because of the fast-paced growth of digital content creation; rise in number of social media platforms; the increase in use of video streaming services; and the increase of online advertising. Stock music (also referred to as royalty-free or production music) refers to pre-recorded tracks that have been licensed for use in film, YouTube videos, podcasts, advertisements, video games, corporate presentations, and other multi-media projects. The increase of UGC on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok has fueled the demand for affordable, accessible, and legal music that is easy to acquire. As a result, content creators, marketing agencies, and production houses are increasingly using stock music libraries as they have a cost advantage, flexible licensing options, and can be downloaded quickly, which is unlike commissioning original compositions.
The global demand for stock music will continue to expand because of the growing popularity of podcasts; over-the-top (OTT) platforms; independent filmmaking; e-learning modules; and branding videos. Subscription-based licensing options and Artificial Intelligence-driven music recommendation systems will improve the accessibility and personalization of stock music, which will further drive stock music market growth. The continued expansion of stock music adoption is largely due to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and independent creators using stock music because there is no risk of copyright infringement, as well as being able to use professional-quality audio files.
How is AI Transforming Content Discovery and Licensing in the Stock Music Market?
AI has changed how people discover and license music in the stock music industry through automating metadata tagging, allowing for semantic searches, and providing personalized recommendations. Some things using machine learning for metadata enhancement with audio finger printing for finding rights and also creating generative tools to increase available materials. Today there are many platforms utilizing artificial intelligence to help users find sounds that can evoke a specific mood, find examples of tracks, and allow users to get suggestions for potential licenses that will require less manual intervention or review. This allows artists to create fewer factors causing delays, which in turn creates new sources of revenue for rights owners.
An example would be platforms providing the ability for creators to change how the content sounds by adapting a track that they have licensed while ensuring that a creator still makes a fair payment to the artist, becoming a part of larger conversations surrounding licensing changes based on the fact that AI uses existing catalogs to train itself. As an example, by September 2025, epidemic sound will release "adapt," its first AI based product that enables artists to recreate previously licensed tracks while at the same time maintaining the artist's payment. The ability to allow creators to leverage this type of adaptability should increase the speed at which platforms connect with both creators and brands while allowing creators to connect with brands should greatly increase the speed and ease at which platforms can connect with creators and brands through automation reducing the amount of manual processing done by human staff.
Market snapshot - (2026-2033)
Global Market Size
USD 1.5 Billion
Largest Segment
Royalty-Free Music
Fastest Growth
Royalty-Free Music
Growth Rate
8.2% CAGR
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The global stock music market is segmented into stock music type, usage scenario, customer type, distribution channel, music genre and region. Based on stock music type, the market is segmented into royalty-free music and rights-managed music. Based on usage scenario, the market is segmented into film production, video content creation and advertising. Based on customer type, the market is segmented into professional creators, amateur creators, and businesses. Based on distribution channels, the market is segmented into online platforms and direct licensing. Based on music genre, the market is segmented into classical, pop, jazz and others. Based on region, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa.
As per global stock music market outlook, the royalty-free music segment dominates the global stock music market. The advantages of this type of music are that it is cost-effective, has a simplified licensing structure, and is easy to use. Those who purchase royalty-free music can either pay a one-time fee or subscribe for unlimited usage of the track without incurring additional royalty payments, making this type of music highly desirable to content creators, small businesses, marketing firms, and independent filmmakers. The explosive growth in digital platforms and user-generated content has generated a significant demand for royalty-free music because these creators need quick, inexpensive, and legally compliant music solutions.
As per global stock music market analysis, the rights-managed segment also continues to experience some growth, mainly because of the high-production value of film projects and the high-cost nature of advertising campaigns. Rights-managed music provides filmmakers and advertisers with the exclusivity and custom licensing terms that they need and gives them control over the distribution of their music. Larger production companies use rights-managed music to create a unique brand identity and mitigate the risk of content duplication.
The video content creation market has the highest stock music market share compared to other segments. With more people consuming video through online platforms such as social media, live streaming services, corporate training videos, and influencer marketing, demand for high-quality and budget-friendly background music has soared. Video content, both short-form and long-form, typically requires uniform enhancement of its sound elements, making video content creation the leading revenue-generating segment of the music industry.
As per global stock music market forecast, there has been significant growth in the advertising segment recently as businesses are investing more dollars into digital marketing and leveraging brand storytelling techniques. Artists are providing unique and emotionally dramatic background music to help companies create deeper connections with their target customers and get more visibility across digital campaigns, television commercials, and social media advertisements. Even though independent film production and the emergence of OTT platforms continue to provide stable revenues for both the music and film industries, the rate of growth in both the advertising and video content creation segments will be significantly greater than the rate of growth of the film industry because of the revolutionizing of how consumers consume media digitally.
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As per stock music market regional outlook, the global stock music industry is dominated by North America due to the convergence of an integrated ecosystem of media production, technology platforms, and established licensing practices with a vast pool of creative talent and institutional investment. The major content industries (film, television, advertising, and digital media) continue to drive a steady demand for customizable music assets while the culture of early adopter technology helps to create innovation on platforms.
The stock music market in the United States has a large concentration of production studios, advertising agencies, and streaming platforms creating a continuous demand for licensing. There are a mature music rights infrastructure and many professional libraries that provide a wide array of styles and custom services. The professionalization of the creator community, high levels of sync placements in the film/TV industry and close working relationships between publishers and production companies continue to create commercial opportunities and platform driven distribution dynamics.
The stock music market in Canada has a strong number of independent composer communities and production centres to support the film, television and advertising industries. National broadcasters and regional studios create a steady stream of licensing activity while collaborative partnerships between composers and post-production companies continue to nurture custom scoring and the growth of library music collections. Market dynamics and incentives for local content development help to foster the creation of diverse catalogs.
The stock music industry in Europe is growing rapidly due to a wide variety of content needs across the region, an increase in production of local and pan-European media, and a constantly evolving digital distribution network. In this fragmented but connected environment of broadcast, digital, and agency customers, there is strong demand for locally sourced music that is rights-cleared for use in the European Union. The development of unified rights management initiatives and the establishment of cross-border licensing agreements are helping to reduce friction associated with using music internationally. The establishment of music technology businesses and specialist libraries is also increasing access to music catalogs. The diversity of languages and cultures within Europe will continue to drive the need for composers and aggregators to create thematic collections that appeal to a range of tastes. A strong network of partnerships among music publishers, advertising agencies, and platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music will help facilitate synchronization placements and commercial licensing, establishing Europe as a dynamic space for growth, with both established hubs and emerging national scenes.
In the Germany stock music market, there is a high level of activity from the advertising industry, which fuels large volumes of stock music, the growth of film and TV productions, the film and TV production business, the corporate video market, and other local businesses with a diverse selection of stock music. Stock music catalogs in Germany are also designed to provide a vast variety of library-based stock music and cater to regional languages and high-quality production values. Professional trade associations and collective licensing create transparent paths for monetization opportunities for stock music, studio infrastructure investments and sound design expertise contribute to the quality of stock music content development and support global collaboration.
As per stock music market regional forecast, the UK market relies on a high concentration of production companies, creative agencies, and music publishers all located primarily in major media cities to take advantage of a significant amount of creative talent in the area. Additionally, the UK stock music market benefits from a large range of composers and producers who create works in more than 60 different styles and have developed strong relationships with the UK Advertising and Film Sectors to generate high-end ratings. Likewise, the UK Stock Music Market has developed a great deal of visibility and credibility internationally and has an increasing number of opportunities for collaborative activities such as developing stock music catalogs and establishing licenses for their catalogs.
As per stock music industry analysis, France is a relatively new market but is growing rapidly due to an increase in the production of cultural materials from France as well as a strong community of independent composers who have access to public funding to develop their musical works. This has also enhanced the French Stock Music Market's appeal by enabling local production companies, particularly those working in advertising and film to use expressive and cinematic cues as opposed to more traditional library style music, by enabling them to acquire and develop unique regional and language based stock music catalogs via smaller boutique libraries.
Asia-Pacific is quickly becoming a major player in the stock music industry due to an increase in the number of creative industries in APAC and through technological advancements in distribution. Regional hubs with talented composers, sound engineers, and production companies are emerging that can meet the growing needs of video games, animated films, feature films, and digital media.
The stock music market in Japan is home to a large amount of video game, animation and feature film music being created, which in turn increases the demand for diverse high-quality musical cues and sounds. Studios and sound design shops are creating a variety of traditional, electronic and orchestral music that appeals to both domestic and international video games, animation, and feature film creators. The technical quality of sound recording in Japan ensures that stock music libraries can create a premium product, while libraries with international reach are working together to change the metadata and licensing on music in their databases so that they can be delivered in different countries.
The stock music market in South Korea is being driven by a healthy popular music scene, highly developed production capabilities and the growth of the gaming industry in South Korea, which is why there is a demand for diverse stock music/sound assets. Studio and electronic music producers are creating scores and cues that can be used both for digital delivery and for gaming. Innovative music technology companies and advancing rights management processes are making it possible for producers to find and license music, while the export market and growth of creative industries in South Korea are providing further opportunities for using stock music/sound internationally.
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Rising Demand from Digital Content Creators
As digital content creators increase, so does the demand for licensed stock music, prompting music libraries to extend their catalogs and invest in curation, thereby directly aiding the growth of both business sectors. Content creators want high-quality tracks that are ready to use for various uses, such as videos, podcasts, and social media. Music suppliers offer many different types of music and various flexible licensing structures to accommodate all the different types of creative content that are produced. The continued demand from content creators provides a financial incentive for composers and libraries to supply more content and improve the way that music can be discovered by the creation of more categories and metadata additions, thus strengthening the commercial ecosystem while also encouraging more investment into platform growth and monetization.
Increased Usage of Streaming Platforms
Streaming platforms are adding large-scale licensed music to their platforms to improve user experiences and create more diversity in the content that is offered on their respective platforms. By incorporating easy-to-access licensed music into their platforms, streaming providers have created opportunities for content creators and rights managers to obtain immediate access to pre-cleared music. In addition to facilitating the use of more pre-cleared music tracks, music libraries have also enhanced the ability for creators to find appropriate music, through enhanced playlisting, editorial support, and promotional placement which all help to increase the visibility of stock music compositions. This will encourage a more significant number of content creators to use licensed music, ultimately resulting in suppliers adding music to their catalogs and changing their product offerings to better fit the needs of the platforms, which will continue to help both markets grow and innovate.
Complex Licensing Copyright Challenges
The stock music market is negatively impacted by the complex licensing frameworks in different territories and the differing copyright laws that create uncertainty and increased legal burdens. Furthermore, the complex process of clearing rights as well as the ambiguity in usage terms makes it time consuming for a creator to select and procure stock music.
Competition from Free Unlicensed Content
The availability of free or unlicensed music options, thus undermining monetization, also has the potential to negatively impact the stock music market through discouraging people from purchasing licensed tracks. When a creator uses a cost-free or poorly licensed music source rather than a licensed track and/or stock music library, a stock music library will have difficulty demonstrating its monetary value to the creator, which can impact on library's ability to generate revenue to acquire new content and improve their platform.
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The global stock music industry is experiencing a highly competitive environment, characterized by consolidation, partnerships between companies/labels and technology platforms, and an accelerating application of generative audio technology in its creation. As a result, organizations are leveraging acquisitions and strategic investments in order to acquire exclusive catalogues and distribution channels. Examples of this are major marketplace acquisitions, as well as label agreements with companies that use artificial intelligence to create soundscapes. These demonstrate companies' use of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, partnerships, and product integration strategies.
Platform Ecosystem Expansion: Market players are creating all-in-one platforms that combine tools for discovering, licensing, distributing, and creating music. These new ecosystems are focused on integrating seamlessly with production software, content publishing channels and brand partners, while allowing for repeat revenue through subscription-based business models. Key components to improve stickiness are curation, community features and developer-friendly APIs; they will also make rights management simpler and enable new ways of making money that support creator workflows versus individual transactions and provide new pathways for creators to make money.
AI-Enhanced Creative Workflows: Generative/assisted technologies are expanding the capabilities of composers, arrangers and sound designers by allowing them to create more recurrences and experiment with wider ranges of styles than would otherwise be possible. Intelligent search, automated tagging, and adaptive mixing tools are all used within platforms to help improve the discoverability and compatibility of music with different types of content. This will create new opportunities for custom/personalized musical product options while creating new service models that are based on customization, collaborative editing, and value-added product services that leverage human curation and Algorithmic efficiency plus allow for no-friction integration across multiple tool chains.
SkyQuest’s ABIRAW (Advanced Business Intelligence, Research & Analysis Wing) is our Business Information Services team that Collects, Collates, Correlates, and Analyses the Data collected by means of Primary Exploratory Research backed by robust Secondary Desk research.
As per SkyQuest analysis, the exponential growth of digital content creation/delivery is rapidly propelling the worldwide stock music industry and creating demand for rights-cleared tracks that can be scaled. However, the complexity of licensing and copyright issues continues to be a significant barrier to stock music's success because of the additional costs incurred and friction caused by the need for compliance. North America is the leading region for the stock music market due to the concentration of media companies in this geographic area and the development of advanced rights-management processes. Royalty-free music continues to be the leading segment of the stock music market because its low-cost, straightforward approach makes it both attractive and easy to use. A second important factor contributing to the growth of the stock music industry is the development of technology that supports changes in the way music can be discovered, licensed, and delivered and creates opportunities for platforms and creators to generate ongoing revenue. A key stock music market trend shaping the market is the rising adoption of subscription-based and AI-powered music licensing platforms, enabling content creators and brands to access customizable, royalty-free tracks quickly and cost-effectively.
| Report Metric | Details |
|---|---|
| Market size value in 2024 | USD 1.5 Billion |
| Market size value in 2033 | USD 3.05 Billion |
| Growth Rate | 8.2% |
| Base year | 2024 |
| Forecast period | (2026-2033) |
| Forecast Unit (Value) | USD Billion |
| Segments covered |
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| Regions covered | North America (US, Canada), Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, Rest of Asia-Pacific), Latin America (Brazil, Rest of Latin America), Middle East & Africa (South Africa, GCC Countries, Rest of MEA) |
| Companies covered |
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| Customization scope | Free report customization with purchase. Customization includes:-
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Table Of Content
Executive Summary
Market overview
Parent Market Analysis
Market overview
Market size
KEY MARKET INSIGHTS
COVID IMPACT
MARKET DYNAMICS & OUTLOOK
Market Size by Region
KEY COMPANY PROFILES
Methodology
For the Stock Music Market, our research methodology involved a mixture of primary and secondary data sources. Key steps involved in the research process are listed below:
1. Information Procurement: This stage involved the procurement of Market data or related information via primary and secondary sources. The various secondary sources used included various company websites, annual reports, trade databases, and paid databases such as Hoover's, Bloomberg Business, Factiva, and Avention. Our team did 45 primary interactions Globally which included several stakeholders such as manufacturers, customers, key opinion leaders, etc. Overall, information procurement was one of the most extensive stages in our research process.
2. Information Analysis: This step involved triangulation of data through bottom-up and top-down approaches to estimate and validate the total size and future estimate of the Stock Music Market.
3. Report Formulation: The final step entailed the placement of data points in appropriate Market spaces in an attempt to deduce viable conclusions.
4. Validation & Publishing: Validation is the most important step in the process. Validation & re-validation via an intricately designed process helped us finalize data points to be used for final calculations. The final Market estimates and forecasts were then aligned and sent to our panel of industry experts for validation of data. Once the validation was done the report was sent to our Quality Assurance team to ensure adherence to style guides, consistency & design.
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With the given market data, our dedicated team of analysts can offer you the following customization options are available for the Stock Music Market:
Product Analysis: Product matrix, which offers a detailed comparison of the product portfolio of companies.
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Global Stock Music Market size was valued at USD 1.5 Billion in 2024 and is poised to grow from USD 1.62 Billion in 2025 to USD 3.05 Billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 8.2% during the forecast period (2026-2033).
The competitive landscape of the global stock music market is defined by consolidation, label and platform partnerships, and rapid adoption of generative audio technology. Companies are using acquisitions and strategic investments to secure exclusive catalogs and distribution channels. Examples include major marketplace acquisitions and label deals with AI soundscape firms, which illustrate M&A, partnership and product integration strategies. 'AudioJungle', 'PremiumBeat', 'Envato Elements', 'Artlist', 'Epidemic Sound', 'Musicbed', 'Shutterstock Music', 'Pond5', 'Soundstripe', 'Marmoset', 'Soundsnap', '123RF Music', 'Bensound', 'Tunesat', 'Filmstro', 'HookSounds', 'Melody Loops', 'Audiomachine', 'SoundCloud for Artists', 'SongFreedom'
The proliferation of digital content creators has expanded demand for licensed stock music, prompting platforms to broaden catalogs and invest in curation, which directly supports market growth. Content creators seek ready to use, high quality tracks for videos, podcasts, and social media, leading providers to offer diverse genres and flexible licensing that meet creative needs. This ongoing demand incentivizes composers and libraries to supply more content and improves discoverability through categorization and metadata enhancements, thereby strengthening the commercial ecosystem and encouraging further platform development and monetization.
As per stock music market regional outlook, the global stock music industry is dominated by North America due to the convergence of an integrated ecosystem of media production, technology platforms, and established licensing practices with a vast pool of creative talent and institutional investment.
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