World IP Day 2025: Feeling the beat of IP!

World Intellectual Property Day is commemorated every 26 April. Millions of people worldwide celebrate the essential role of IP rights in fostering creativity and innovation to drive human progress.

The date was designated in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organization’s member states, coinciding with the day the WIPO Convention came into force (April 26, 1970), to increase awareness and understanding of IP.

This year's theme is ‘IP and music: Feel the beat of IP’ (Merpel couldn’t be happier about the topic).

WIPO has highlighted the power of music as a universal language, advocating for celebrating the “contributions of creators, inventors, and entrepreneurs who are pushing the boundaries of innovation and creativity to make music that brings people together, evokes powerful emotions, drives change, and inspires a more innovative future”.

On the occasion of World IP Day, WIPO released data on the evolution of music genre popularity by analyzing streams on Apple Music and other sources as part of its Creative Industries Insights Series. The data revealed that pop music represented 39% of all chart entries in early 2018, compared with 33% by 2024. Other genres such as metal, electronic dance and folk pop also showed strong growth. The technical note and data on the analysis can also be consulted.

The Creative Industries Insights Series offers data analytics and actionable knowledge to navigate the creative landscape. The Series currently covers the following:

• International Music Trade: New Insights from Global Streaming Data covers the latest trends in digital music, including interactive data on countries leading the global charts and music exports.
• The Sound of Diversity: How Local Music is Reshaping the Charts presents the latest trends in local music consumption through data analysis from national charts across 17 markets from 2013 to 2022.
• Music Sampling in the Digital Age addresses how music genres influence each other through creative practices such as direct samples, interpolation, and cover versions.
• Music and Gender analyzes gender representation in the music industry, highlighting the popularity of Latin music and R&B, which are leading streaming charts and female representation.

WIPO also recently announced the winners of the World IP Day 2025 Youth Video Competition, in which more than 120 entries were submitted by participants from 62 countries. This year’s theme is ‘Tuning in with the music of innovation and creativity’. The top 20 short-listed video entries were voted on online, and over 28K people cast more than 93K votes.

The WIPO Magazine Special Issue on Music and IP is also available. It features diverse stories, including IFPI data on music revenue, voice cloning, the US Copyright Office’s stance on AI and conversations with music creators.

Lastly, WIPO is offering more materials on World IP Day, such as a Global Events Calendar and IP Resources and Tools focused on music, including the platform CLIP, which is addressed to creators to help them understand the music industry and their rights (e.g., how to get credited and paid when they write, perform, or record a song).

Happy World IP Day to our readers! 🎉🎶🎸🎙️🎧🎷🎶

Lenny Kravitz 'Blue Electric Light Tour' - First image by Verónica Rodríguez Arguijo.

Creative Industries Insights Series, WIPO (2025), Primary Sources: Apple Music, Global Streaming Charts. Make Music Equal, Chartmetric - Second image available on the WIPO website.

IFPI, Global recorded music revenue share by format (2024) - Third image available on WIPO Magazine on Music and IP.