Trends, Highlights, & Insights from 2023! Plus, a look ahead at 2024…

Hi everyone – Geoff, Andrew, Dan, Ryan and Brent… founders of SourceAudio here. 

First and foremost, we wanted to extend our sincere thanks for making 2023 another transformative year. Without your loyal partnership and the truly amazing music and content you all create, none of the opportunities and innovations we get to enable behind-the-scenes would be possible.  

As your host and CMS partner to well over 30 million unique, incredible songs and counting, we are in the very fortunate position of having unique insights into which tracks are resonating in search, TV, movies, podcasts, ads, and beyond. It’s tremendously gratifying to see our community’s music setting the tone to all these remarkable projects – it never gets old.

As we look ahead to 2024 and continuing our mission to provide most creator-oriented platform in the space, powered by responsible innovation and technology that uplifts rightsholders everywhere, we wanted to share and celebrate a few highlights and successes with you all from 2023 first. As far as we’ve come in over 14 years since we began here at SourceAudio, we truly believe our journey is only just beginning. You’ve seen the first handful of AI products and solutions we’ve already launched for our friends in the artist and content creator community; wait until you see what we have in store for you in early 2024. The future of our space is bright and we are honored to play a meaningful role in it.  

Now, on to some of those key pieces of data and insights from 2023 as promised… 

OVERALL PLATFORM ACTIVITY

→ Total music searches: 23,976,424 (up 14% YoY)

→  Total file downloads: 29,373,759 (up 9% YoY)

→  Total new songs uploaded: 3,923,140 (up 26% YoY)

→  Total professional, B2B users: 520,914 (up 9% YoY)

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS & TRENDS

→  Total tracks across all sites on the platform (each listing): 398,468,208 (up 24% YoY)

→  Total catalogs: 3,028 (up 22% YoY) 

Top 20 Search Terms from 2023:

1. 1. ISRC: (fill in the blank) – 48,559
2. 2. Whoosh – 42,471
3. 3. Rock – 36,907
4. 4. Hip hop – 36,374
5. 5. Pop – 34,493
6. 6. Explosion – 29,915
7. 7. Wind – 26,753
8. 8. Christmas – 25,306
9. 9. Happy – 25,026
10. 10. Piano – 24,960
11. 11. Trailer – 23,600
12. 12. Footsteps – 23,453
13. 13. Upbeat – 22,672
14. 14. Jazz – 22,561
15. 15. Horror – 21,619
16. 16. Magic – 21,004
17. 17. Sports – 20,873
18. 18. Tension – 19,926
19. 19. Comedy – 18,867
20. 20. Country – 18,291

Top 10 Most Common Moods & Styles on New Uploads:

1. 1. Confident – 244,810
2. 2. Energetic – 234,033
3. 3. Determined – 223,524
4. 4. Upbeat – 219,196
5. 5. Dark – 204,415
6. 6. Mysterious – 188,140
7. 7. Dramatic – 181,057
8. 8. Tense – 176,331
9. 9. Fun – 172,043
10. 10. Positive – 171,437

Top 10 Most Common Moods & Styles on Downloaded Songs:

1. 1. Energetic – 3,261,536
2. 2. Determined – 3,142,248
3. 3. Tense – 2,500,584
4. 4. Uplifting – 2,065,914
5. 5. Emotional – 2,025,336
6. 6. Upbeat – 1,998,090
7. 7. Dramatic – 1,992,408
8. 8. Bright – 1,684,488
9. 9. Bold – 1,649,780
10. 10. Comedy – 1,099,188

Looking Ahead to 2024: The Year of New Opportunity With AI

We can all agree that AI is all around us and that artists & IP owners across all mediums share a collective concern about how their historical works could be accessed and utilized – without consent – in the future. While there remains uncertainty around how some will approach the convergence of music and AI, we stand firmly in the corner of rightsholders and are dedicated to putting resources towards innovations that support, enhance, and empower the rightsholder community. Period. From our best-in-class AI Powered Metadata to our copyright protection product, AudioGuard™, that protects your assets from unauthorized downstream AI, we know that when built and applied in the right ways, AI can be additive and transformative for each and every one of you. For more information and to hear our mission and values when it comes to AI, please check out our Open Letter on AI that we published near the end of last summer. 

Stay tuned as we share a series of updates and announcements with you as these new AI tools and features become available to our entire user base and community.

From our dedicated team to you and yours, we wish you all the best in this New Year and want you to know we are more energized than ever to deliver on our mission and roadmap to help you grow in 2024 and beyond!