1. The sector is growing and the data clearly shows that interest in music, events and festivals in Bulgaria is higher than ever.
The audience is active, engaged and increasingly willing to attend large formats.
This is an indicator of excellent potential for the development of the music market.

2. At the same time, the industry is developing despite limited infrastructure and minimal public support.
Most major successes happen through private efforts, volunteerism and personal investments – a model that is not sustainable in the long term.

3. The interest of foreign fans to attend concerts in Bulgaria is increasing – music tourism has huge potential.
But there is a lack of coordinated efforts to promote the country as a music destination, and the infrastructure often does not meet European standards for large events.

4. Bulgarian artists have a real chance for an international breakthrough, but suffer from a lack of export structure.
Almost every European country has state-funded export offices that support artists and managers. In our country, such a structure is lacking, which puts domestic artists at a disadvantage.

5. The concert and festival sector is the most sought-after and fastest growing segment of the market.
The audience is there, the interest is there – but the infrastructure, permitting processes and regulations often make it difficult to realize large events.
The sector is growing, but growth is currently happening “in spite of”.

6. Streaming and digital music consumption continue to grow.
But the market in our country is still small compared to the region – which means that the local sector has the potential to significantly increase revenues, as long as there are conditions for professionalization and export.

7. The data shows a strong young audience – active, modern and with European consumption habits.
This is a strategically important cultural resource for the country. But there is a lack of a long-term policy for engaging and retaining a young audience through sustainable music formats.

8. The industry is highly entrepreneurial and works very efficiently with few resources.
This is an advantage – but also a risk. Currently, too much depends on individual private organizations, which makes the market unstable. State support is needed not to “rescue” but to accelerate and stabilize growth that has already begun.

9. Revenues from copyright and related rights remain unbalanced.
The main revenues come from traditional media (TV/radio), while the online environment is undervalued and underreported. This leads to a real underestimation of the value created by Bulgarian artists on digital platforms.

10. The problem of the lack of complete data from online platforms is a key limitation.
YouTube, Meta, TikTok and streaming services provide partial or aggregated data. This makes the market assessment conservative and below the real potential.

11. Users allocate more funds for international content than for Bulgarian music.
This applies to concerts, streaming, merchandise and donations. Bulgarian artists are not sufficiently monetized despite the growing popularity of the local scene.

Consumer research:
Research on the behavior of end-users of music and the costs of music products and services:

• National representative survey among the population aged 15+

Expert interviews with representatives of the music industry and experts in the field of finance and copyright:

• Total 15 interviews

Research of documents and publicly available information:

• Reports on the assessment of the music market in Bulgaria and worldwide;
• Reports of collective rights management organizations (PROFON and MUZIKAUTOR);
• Reports of independent collective rights management organizations;
• Reports of professional associations (BAMP, IFPI);
• Other publicly available information – articles, statistics on sales of music services, products, concert tickets.