2025Music Economics Report
Foreword
Since Duetti was founded in 2022, our mission has been to expand financial opportunities for independent music creators. In the past four years, we have partnered with over 1,100 artists, songwriters, and music creators around the world, fueling creativity and financial independence.
Because of this mission, we spend every day monitoring and analyzing the royalty payouts of independent artists and songwriters. In this report, we leverage our proprietary data to generate concrete insights around catalog durability, intended to inform independent creators on the factors that influence the financial performance of their catalogs over time.
About this report
No two catalogs follow the same streaming trajectory over time, but with sophisticated statistical analysis, we have surfaced key insights that influence catalog financial value. When it comes to financial value, the catalogs that command the highest valuation multiples are “durable catalogs” - those that decay the slowest, or maintain streams over time.
For this report, we have selected four key insights that provide an interesting angle on what durable catalogs have in common. Some of these insights are highly actionable, while others may be more inherent to an artist’s audience.
At Duetti, we always believe that music comes first. In an industry where some of the most meaningful metrics of success - creative expression, artistic evolution, and audience connection - are not neatly quantifiable, we aim to provide a layer of statistical insight that can fuel artistic growth.
Defining Terms
Independent Artists
Over 12M artists have released music on streaming services. For the purpose of this report, we focused on artists who are making at least $100 per year, and less than $350K per year, of streaming income.
Durable Catalog
There are many ways to define music catalogs as durable over time1. For the purpose of this report, we define durable catalogs as those with less than 10% annual decay in their streaming activity in 2025.
1The average catalog age for tracks included in this report is 4.2 years.
What do durable catalogs have in common?
Slower growth endures more than short term virality
+60% likelihood of durable catalog
Frequent and strategically-timed releases fuel streams
~20% increase in revenue
Focused audiences drive long-term results
+50% likelihood of durable catalog
Investing in YouTube FIRST fuels growth across platforms
+16% likelihood of durable catalog
