Digital Rights Management Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Digital Rights Management Market is projected to expand significantly, growing from USD 7.73 Billion in 2025 to USD 13.78 Billion by 2031 at a CAGR of 10.11%. Digital Rights Management (DRM) encompasses a suite of access control technologies utilized by copyright holders and publishers to limit the use of proprietary hardware and digital content. This market growth is primarily driven by the surge in digital consumption via streaming platforms and the critical need to secure intellectual property revenue against unauthorized distribution. Additionally, rigorous regulatory mandates for data protection and the increasing commercial value of digital assets are compelling organizations to adopt robust rights management frameworks to safeguard their earnings.

According to the 'International Federation of the Phonographic Industry' in their '2025' report, global recorded music revenues reached 29.6 billion US dollars in 2024, with streaming formats comprising 69 percent of that total. Despite this growth, a major challenge hindering market expansion is the lack of interoperability between conflicting DRM standards. This technical fragmentation creates friction in the user experience and limits content portability, which can frustrate consumers and inadvertently encourage the consumption of unlicensed alternatives.

Market Drivers

The rapid proliferation of Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms and digital streaming services acts as a primary catalyst for the adoption of advanced rights management technologies. As providers invest heavily in premium original content, the necessity to enforce regional licensing agreements and curtail unauthorized account sharing has intensified. This increase in high-value digital assets demands security protocols that ensure content is decrypted solely by authorized subscribers on verified devices, pushing the market toward cloud-based and hardware-supported DRM architectures. This shift in consumption is strongly supported by mobile connectivity; Ericsson reported that global 5G mobile subscriptions hit 1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024, establishing a vast infrastructure for high-definition mobile streaming that requires rigorous access control, leading streaming services to prioritize scalable DRM solutions.

Simultaneously, the rising prevalence of digital piracy and intellectual property theft is a critical pressure point forcing rights holders to upgrade their defensive capabilities. Illicit redistribution networks have evolved from simple file-sharing to sophisticated illegal streaming services that mimic legitimate platforms, causing substantial revenue losses for creators and broadcasters. To counter these threats, organizations are deploying forensic watermarking and real-time pirate stream disruption tools to trace and terminate unauthorized leaks. The scale of this challenge is immense; MUSO’s '2023 Creative Industries Piracy Report' from February 2024 noted that global visits to piracy websites surged to 229.4 billion in 2023. The financial imperative to stop this theft is further highlighted by industry performance; Netflix’s 'Third Quarter 2024 Shareholder Letter' from October 2024 revealed a 15 percent year-over-year revenue increase to 9.8 billion US dollars, demonstrating the massive economic stakes relying on effective digital rights preservation.

Market Challenges

The lack of interoperability among conflicting Digital Rights Management standards presents a major obstacle to market expansion. As consumers increasingly rely on a diverse ecosystem of devices, the inability to seamlessly transfer purchased content across different platforms creates significant user friction. This technical fragmentation restricts content portability, effectively locking users into specific hardware or software environments. When legitimate access becomes overly restrictive or inconvenient due to these compatibility issues, consumers are more likely to bypass legal channels entirely in favor of easily accessible, unrestricted illegitimate sources.

This migration toward unlicensed alternatives undermines the revenue streams that DRM technologies are designed to protect, thereby reducing the return on investment for content publishers and inhibiting the broader adoption of paid digital services. The scale of this issue is evident in the volume of traffic directed toward illicit platforms. According to the 'Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment' in '2024', a single notorious illegal streaming operation registered 1.6 billion visits globally over a twelve-month period. Such pervasive piracy, driven by the limitations and friction of current rights management frameworks, directly hampers the market’s ability to maximize monetization and sustainable growth.

Market Trends

The integration of Artificial Intelligence for real-time threat detection is fundamentally reshaping the market by shifting security strategies from static encryption to active, intelligence-led defense mechanisms. As piracy networks become more sophisticated, rights holders are deploying AI-driven tools that automate the identification of unauthorized redistribution patterns and execute immediate countermeasures. This demand for adaptive protection is generating significant economic value for technology providers who have successfully incorporated these advanced capabilities into their portfolios. According to the Kudelski Group’s '2024 Annual Results' from February 2025, the company's Digital Television segment achieved a 47 percent revenue growth from its Advanced Security Platform in 2024, validating the rapid industrial shift toward dynamic, high-performance security architectures capable of combatting evolving digital threats.

Concurrently, there is a decisive structural shift toward Cloud-Native DRM-as-a-Service (DRMaaS) models, driven by the need for scalability and cost efficiency in an increasingly fragmented device landscape. By transitioning to cloud-based frameworks, media organizations can instantly update security protocols across millions of endpoints without the prohibitive capital expenditure associated with on-premises hardware. This migration is compelling security vendors to restructure their financial models, prioritizing predictable subscription-based income over traditional perpetual licensing. According to Verimatrix’s 'FY 2024 Revenue and Results' press release from March 2025, recurring revenue accounted for 60 percent of the company’s total revenue in 2024, underscoring the dominance of the software-as-a-service model in the modern digital rights ecosystem.

Key Players Profiled in the Digital Rights Management Market

• Apple Inc.
• Adobe Systems
• EMC Corporation
• Hewlett-Packard
• International Business Machines Corporation
• Microsoft Corporation
• Oracle Corporation
• RealNetworks, Inc.
• Sony Corporation
• VeriSign Inc.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Digital Rights Management Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Digital Rights Management Market, by Application:

• Mobile Content
• Mobile Gaming
• Video-On-Demand
• Others

Digital Rights Management Market, by Enterprise Size:

• Small & Medium Enterprises
• Large Enterprise

Digital Rights Management Market, by Industry Vertical:

• BFSI
• Healthcare
• Printing & Publication Educational
• Television & Film
• Others

Digital Rights Management Market, by Deployment Mode:

• On-Premises
• Cloud

Digital Rights Management Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Digital Rights Management Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

This product will be delivered within 1-3 business days.