MENA Is the World's Fastest-Growing Music Market. Here Is What the Data Actually Shows.

The Headline Numbers

IFPI's Global Music Report 2026 reports MENA recorded-music revenue growing 15.2 per cent in 2025, making it joint second among the fastest-growing regions measured, level with Sub-Saharan Africa and behind Latin America's 17.1 per cent. Global revenue grew 6.4 per cent to $31.7bn, with paid subscriptions reaching 837 million users. Streaming supplied 97.5 per cent of MENA's revenue, the most streaming-dependent profile of any region. The year before, the 2025 report had MENA growing 22.8 per cent, the world's fastest, with streaming at 99.5 per cent. Billboard's coverage provides an independent summary of the 2026 figures.

What a Percentage Does Not Tell You

A 15.2 per cent growth rate on a small base is a different fact from 15.2 per cent on a large one. MENA remains a modest share of global recorded-music revenue in absolute terms, and IFPI's public summary does not disclose the region's absolute dollar figure at all, so a high growth rate reflects both genuine expansion and a low starting point. Reporting the percentage without the base is the most common distortion in coverage of this market, and it is what turns a real trend into an inflated one. The deceleration between the two reports, 22.8 to 15.2, likewise went almost entirely unreported by outlets that had celebrated the first number.

What the Report Does Not Measure

Three limits are worth stating plainly, because they are routinely ignored. First, IFPI measures revenue accruing to record companies and rights holders; it does not indicate what share reaches artists, the gap Ghurba's money-flow investigation traces through platforms, catalogue deals and missing collection societies. Second, the public summary does not break MENA down by country: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Morocco have very different market structures, three economies wearing one acronym, and a single figure flattens all of it. Third, it does not break down by genre or language, so it cannot say whether growth is driven by Arabic-language repertoire or by international catalogue consumed in the region. Those are opposite stories with the same headline number.

How to Read It

The defensible reading: streaming adoption in MENA is growing quickly, subscription revenue is rising, and the region is a genuine growth market for rights holders. The indefensible reading, which appears constantly, is that Arab artists are therefore earning substantially more. The report contains no evidence for that claim either way; the artist-side proxies that do exist, Spotify's country disclosures, show totals measured in single-digit millions. For the practical implications, our companion explainer on independent-artist economics completes the picture, and our guide to reading music numbers generalises the method: always ask who counted, from what base, and what the number does not measure.

The figures here are drawn directly from IFPI's published report and independent coverage of it. Ghurba Records has no financial relationship with IFPI.

Key Facts

• MENA recorded-music revenue grew 15.2% in 2025, joint second-fastest globally with Sub-Saharan Africa (IFPI GMR 2026).

• Global revenue grew 6.4% to $31.7bn; paid subscribers reached 837 million.

• Streaming supplies 97.5% of MENA revenue, the highest share of any region.

• The 2024 figure was 22.8% growth (GMR 2025); the deceleration went largely unreported.

• IFPI does not publish MENA's absolute revenue, country breakdowns, or artist-share data.