Authors and composers collected €7.5 billion in royalties in 2010, a 5.5% increase on the previous year, according to figures published by international body CISAC this week.
The growth followed a 1.7% rise in 2009 and a slight fall in 2008.
CISAC said that 61% of total revenues came from Europe. But Latin America/Caribbean and Asia-Pacific showed the biggest growth in revenues (21% and 12% respectively).
Public performance royalties accounted 73% of collections, and 86% came from musical repertoire. Audiovisual repertoire royalties grew by 15%.
Only 1.7% of collections came from the digital sector, but this proportion is expected to grow with the global spread of paid-for services such as iTunes, Spotify and Deezer.
The data was provided by CISAC members, which comprise 232 authors’ societies in 121 countries.