How big is the music industry in the 9th most populous country in Europe?
INTRODUCTION
With a population of 19.9 million, Romania is listed by worldometer as 9th in Europe (out of 47 nations) and 64th in the world (out of 234).
In Europe, the closest numbers to compare to are Netherlands (17.6 million population) while worldwide Chile (19.5). We will use these two countries in the analysis below.
The music industry is a global playing field and a number of things facilitate that: uncensored and fast internet, open borders within EU, the ability to produce recorded & live music in popular languages (English, Spanish).
Romania checks all boxes listed above. So how is it doing on the world stage? Let’s have a look at data tracked in Chartmetric – the platform of platforms for streaming and social media.
ARTISTS
With 8.1k artists tracked, Romania ranks 45th globally in the list of countries pooled by Chartmetric.
Netherlands ranks #13 (65.1k artists) and Chile #17 (38.9k).
Of the 6 main Career-Stage pools in Chartmetric, Romania has no Legenday artist listed, one Superstar (INNA) == 28 Mainstream == 84 Mid-Level == 804 Developing – the remaining 7,148 being Undiscovered
Netherlands has 10 superstars (Tiesto and Armin van Buuren among them) and 148 Mainstream.
Chile has 11 superstars and 36 mainstream.
TRACKS AND PLAYLISTS
Netherlands has 1.2 million tracks; Chile 440k.
Spotify has 15 editorial playlists dedicated to Romania. None has more than 100k followers.
There are 81 in Netherlands (with 43 of them in excess of 100k followers) and 8 in Chile (6 with 100k+ followers).
CONCLUSION
When compared with similar countries, Romania’s music industry tracks behind them. It could use a page or two from their books.
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George Motoc 
[…] luat și eu la comparat cifrele pentru România cu cele pentru țări asemănătoare ca populație, Olanda și Chile. Am ieșit pe locul trei din trei. Stăm mai bine la festivaluri (avem câteva masive – vezi […]