Independent Labels Claimed 35% Market Share In The US Last Year… By Ownership

Last year, the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) issued a report suggesting that independent labels claimed a 37.6% market share in 2015.

The WINTEL write-up, co-authored by respected analyst Mark Mulligan, discovered that independent labels generated $5.6 billion in revenue in the year.

Unlike traditional market share metrics, which judge the industry on distribution power, the WIN report instead measured money generated by rights ownership.

Why that’s important: a big chunk of the major labels’ global market share is typically based on the revenue they accrue through their ability to distribute releases from independent label partners.
Much of this revenue, however, is subsequently paid through to the majors’ independent partners.
In the case of UMG, for instance, that includes Big Machine (Taylor Swift), Concord (Iggy Pop, Paul McCartney) and Glassnote (Mumford & Sons, Childish Gambino – pictured).

WIN argues that it’s the rights ownership figure, rather than the distribution figure, which is most important.