Most-Viewed Music Documentaries: ‘Greatest Night In Pop’ Leads the Way for Netflix

Most-Viewed Music Documentaries: ‘Greatest Night In Pop’ Leads the Way for Netflix

Concert films and music documentaries drove music revenue. That is just one key takeaway from the 2024 Year-End Music Report by entertainment data and insights company Luminate, which was published on Wednesday.

The fact that music docs mean business is evident from some insights in the report. “Concert films and music documentaries once again demonstrated their value to both streaming platforms, with Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+ leading the charge to satiate consumer demand for the format, and music rights holders, who benefit from associated streaming surges and royalties,” the report highlighted.

Luminate’s Streaming Viewership tool highlighted the most-watched music documentaries across all major platforms in 2024, led by Netflix’s The Greatest Night in Pop, about the night in 1985 when the industry’s biggest stars came together to record “We Are the World.” Since making its debut in January 2024, it reached 1.27 billion minutes streamed (see chart), according to Luminate.

Prime Video’s I Am: Celine Dion came in second, followed by Netflix’s Return of the King: The Fall and Rise of Elvis Presley, and Netflix’s Miss Americana, a Taylor Swift documentary originally released in January 2020. “Despite being the oldest on the list, Miss Americana was the fourth most-watched music documentary in 2024, a resurgence fueled by the release of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department album and the global success of her Eras Tour, proving how strategic cross-promotion can breathe new life into catalogs and their revenue potential,” Luminate explained.

Speaking of Swift, she topped the 2024 global rankings as the most streamed songwriter and influential artist.

“Taylor Swift’s global dominance continued in 2024 with her critically acclaimed album The Tortured Poets Department and record-breaking Eras Tour,” the firm highlighted. “Now, for the first time, Luminate can also reveal that Swift was the most-streamed songwriter worldwide in 2024. An analysis of the top 1000 globally streamed songs placed Swift at the number 1 spot, surpassing industry icons like Max Martin, who has written for Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, and many more stars, and The Weeknd.”

Songwriters from the U.S., U.K., and Canada accounted for the most streams of the top 1,000 songs on 2024, the report shows, but also highlights “the growing influence of international songwriters from Sweden and France who claim the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Australia, Norway, Germany, Colombia, and South Korea completed the top 10, reflecting the diversity of the modern hit-making landscape.”

Swift’s dominance is further reinforced by her taking the top spot in Luminate’s inaugural ranking of the most influential artists in the world. This Luminate Index is a “composite metric for understanding the depth, breadth, and affinity of an artist’s fandom among U.S. consumers, helping brands to make informed decisions when it comes to artist partnerships,” the firm explained. “Female artists occupied eight of the top 10 positions, with Swift in pole position, followed by Adele and Beyoncé. Elton John (fourth) and Eminem (sixth) were the only male artists to make it into the top 10,” with Rihanna coming in fifth, while also ranking number 1 among Gen Z consumers. Rounding out the top 10 were Shakira (seven), Ariana Grande (eight), Lady Gaga (nine), and Dolly Parton (10th).

Luminate is a subsidiary of PME TopCo., a joint venture between The Hollywood Reporter owner Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Its analysis used 23 trillion data points from thousands of artists and data from more than 500 partners spanning digital, retail, and airplay.