Koda secures a turnover of 1.2 billion

2023 has been an excellent year for music. Large arenas were filled like never before, and Danish artists dominated the charts, with Danish 'evergreens' making a comeback on the international music scene. This success is reflected in Koda's revenue, which reached 1.2 billion kroner. Consequently, 1.1 billion kroner will be distributed among rightsholders in Denmark and abroad, whose music underpins these revenues. This information is detailed in Koda's annual report, published today.

The 2023 results represent a nine percent growth compared to the previous year. This growth is attributed to all areas except the TV sector, with new agreements in the online sector and continued growth in the concert and international sectors significantly boosting revenues for composers, songwriters, and music publishers.

"This year's results demonstrate that our strategy to drive growth by strengthening international music licensing in the online sector and entering sustainable agreements with music services has been successful. At Koda, we cannot control which music tracks are played and become hits, but we can strive to achieve our goal of becoming world leaders in ensuring our members receive fair and accurate compensation when their music is used on global platforms," says Koda's director, Gorm Arildsen.

Challenges threaten

Although 2023 was a good year for music, several challenges are looming – both now and in the future. These challenges threaten the Danish and global music markets, copyright principles, and human-created art and culture. Therefore, it requires persistent effort and collaboration across the music and rights industry for Koda to withstand the downward price pressure from market players and help ensure a strong and sustainable future for the music industry.

"We can certainly afford to pause for a moment and, on behalf of our members, be proud of our achievements in 2023. But we must not dwell on them. 2024 is already in full swing, and many challenges threaten the market. We face tech giants and, unfortunately, local players who have very different expectations for the valuation of music and cultural content than we do. At the same time, the advent of artificial intelligence in the music market challenges the fundamental principles of copyright. If we do not take control of this new technology through thoughtful regulation, we risk that artists and culture will serve technology rather than the other way around. This will make music creators poorer economically and all of us poorer culturally," states Koda's director, Gorm Arildsen.

In Koda's annual report, you can see several highlights and figures from 2023 and read the reports from Koda's director and chairperson about the past year. The annual report also lists the music tracks that earned the most in Denmark in 2023.

Find the annual report and the chart here (in Danish)

Read more about this year's activities in Koda's transparency report (in Danish)

Annual Report on Koda's Cultural Funds

Alongside the annual report, Koda also releases its annual report on the use of Koda's cultural funds, aimed at stimulating and supporting the creation of new music. This report offers insights into how Koda's cultural funds were utilized in 2023, detailing the distribution of applicants and recipients by gender, age, and geography.

Read report here (in Danish)