What a difference a year – or a few months can make with a huge tag refresh.
Universal Music Group's reorganization in February – which loosely split the music giant's record companies into two umbrellas, Republic Corps and Interscope Capitol Labels Group (ICLG) – has created a new hegemony that effectively splits the top market share of the industry. half, which means that the House of the Republic Monte Lipman and the ICLG John Janick The record label empires at the top, in a given week, can collectively rival Warner Music Group for market share. (For Republic, given its partnership with Big Loud for Morgan Wallen and the phenomenal success of Taylor Swift and others, this was already happening at times last year.) In the first quarter of 2024, for example, both Republic Corps ( 13.69%) and ICLG (13.81%) show current market shares that are more than double the next highest label than any other company.
However, for the sake of comparison – and to get a sense of market trends – we'll set this reorganization aside for now, particularly as it happened in the middle of a quarter and therefore doesn't reflect the entirety of the first three months of 2024. And even below of the old line-up, Republic (which, even before the shift, included Island, Big Loud, Mercury and Imperial) and Interscope (which similarly already included Geffen and Verve Label Group) still lead the package for releases through the end of March.
Republic, on the strength of sustained hit albums by Wallen, Swift, Drake and Noah Kahan, as well as the massive success of Ariana Grande's new album eternal sunshinerecorded a current market share of 12.84% (defined as albums released in the past 18 months), just marginally brought down to earth from an impressive 13.47% full year current share it posted in 2023 and a slight increase from the 12.45% first quarter it had last year. Meanwhile, Interscope's current stake of 9.10% is a big jump from the 7.75% it posted in the first quarter of 2023 and the 8.80% it posted for the full year last year, with its continued success Olivia Rodrigo and the singles from Xavi. (“La Diabla” and “La Victima”), among others, help strengthen her position.
But perhaps the biggest story of Q1 2024 was the blockbuster success of Warner Records, which rose from seventh place in Q1 2023 (5.23% current share) to third in Q1 2024 (6.41 %), reflecting the label's remarkable success on the Hot 100 so far this year. Benson Boone's “Beautiful Things,” Hot 100 No. 1 by Teddy Swims 'Lose Control' and Zach Bryan's 'I Remember Everything'. Kacey Musgraves are among the top five songs of the year so far, while Bryan's 2023 self-titled album and 2022 album American Heart Break both are among the top 20 albums of the first quarter. Warner — whose market share includes catalog label Rhino as well as Warner Latin and parts of Warner Nashville — continued to build its 2023 course, when it finished with a current share of 5.96% for the full year.
That rise pushed Atlantic Records into fourth place, with a 5.14% current share, down more than 2% from the 7.22% it held in the first quarter of 2023. Atlantic — which includes 300 Elektra Entertainment in market share her — had a big hit from Jack Harlow, whose single “Lovin' On Me” topped the Hot 100 for five weeks in the first months of the year. Atlantic's hold in the fourth, however, was just 0.01% above RCA Records, which reached 5.13%, as the sustained strength of singles from SZA, Doja Cat and Tate McRae, combined with a viral smash from Flo Milli (“Cruel Summer”), kept the company in fifth place, despite a 5.76% drop from the first quarter of 2023, when the SZA album had locked in the top spot on the Billboard 200.
In sixth place is Capitol Music Group – whose market share still includes indie distributor Virgin, as well as Quality Control/Motown, Capitol Christian, Astralwerks and Blue Note – which posted a current share of 4.71%, up from 5, 56% in the first three months of 2023. Falling to seventh is Columbia, which includes some labels from independent distributor RED in its market share, to 3.71%, from 5.85% a year ago. Although, in this particular ranking, Columbia is an unfortunate victim of the end-of-March deadline. By Beyoncé Cowboy Carter debuted next week with the biggest first week of the year, which will be reflected in the second quarter. In eighth, Epic Records saw a big boost, posting a 2.99% share (up from 2.06% last year), although this also looks set to trend higher in Q2, with the Future/Metro Boomin twin albums still they increase. Sony Latin (2.38%, up from 1.92%) and Sony Nashville (2.08%, down from 2.30%) round out the top 10 in current market share.
Among label groups, UMG's dominance continued, with its current share of 33.90% up slightly from 33.59% in Q1 2023, while Sony Music Group's 26.91% was down from 28 .46% of last year — again, probably a quirk of the Calendar. However, despite Warner Records' individual rise, Warner Music Group's overall current share fell to 15.98%, from 16.81% in the first quarter of last year. (WMG's market share still contains 1.09% of BMG's, despite the latter's announcement that it will end its distribution deal with Warner; projects that were in the works before the deal ended are still going through from the Warner system, a BMG spokesman said.) The big gainer in current market share is the independent sector, which grew its mark from 21.15% in the first quarter of last year to 23.21% this year from distribution ownership , a significant increase. Both Ye and Ty Dolla $ign's chart-topping independent release Vultures 1 and the huge success of Mitski's “My Love Mine All Mine” helped boost it.
The numbers are more static when looking at overall market share, which includes the back catalog, although the trends are still there: Universal (38.23%, up from 37.65%) and Indies (16.28%, from 16.18%) both were up. Q1 2023, while Sony (27.23%, from 27.62%) and WMG (18.26%, from 18.55%) declined. Based on label ownership, the independent sector remains larger than any single major, accounting for 36.09% of the total market share, though down from the 37.38% it had in the first quarter of 2023.
Among individual labels, Republic's huge current numbers pushed its overall market share past Interscope for first place at 9.94%, up from 9.16% last year, while Interscope's second place at 9.85% still represents growth from last year's peak of 9.44%. . Atlantic's strong catalog numbers meant that overall share remained in third place at 7.65%, edging out Warner Records, which moved up to fourth with 6.72%. Interscope, meanwhile, maintained its top spot in catalog market share, at 10.09%, with Republic (9.03%) and Atlantic (8.43%) close behind.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/record-labels/record-label-market-share-q1-2024-universal-warner-1235655068/
