Peering over U.S. borders at the rest of the world, the recorded music business looks like the land of opportunity. The U.S. is certainly lucrative, but it’s also hyper-competitive. While the three major labels have locked up most of the States’ recorded music revenues — they distribute many indies, too — they command a far lower share internationally. are so common. On an ownership basis, independent artists and labels had a 46.
Besides the availability of market share, companies are also investing outside of more familiar, Western countries because they’re chasing high growth rates. The U.S. is slowing and has settled into solid, high-single-digit annual improvements: 7.2% in 2023 and 5% in 2022 after a pandemic-related 41% surge in 2021, according to the IFPI’s data on global trade revenue.
Emerging music markets, on the other hand, are growing like weeds. Strong gains in some heavily populated countries led the U.S.’s share of global revenues to dip from 41.2% in 2021 to 38.6% in 2023. Over that time span, China’s share grew from 3.8% to 5.1% and Brazil’s share rose from 1.8% from 2.0%. In 2023 alone, Mexico grew 18% to $490 million, and India grew 15% to $357 million to overtake Spain as the world’s No. 14 market.
For majors and indies alike, the never-ending pursuit of market share is taking them across the globe. This year, Universal Music GroupIndian record label White Hill Music’s catalog and YouTube channel. In 2022, Sony Music acquired Brazilian independent music company Som Livre. A year earlier, Warner Music Group invested in Saudi Arabian independent label Rotana, building a presence in the Middle East-North Africa region where Reservoir Media has a partnership with Abu Dhabi-based PopArabia.
Streaming and social media have allowed independents to blossom around the world, creating a market “more diverse, fragmented, international, and regional than it has ever been,” wrote MIDiA’s. “It has resulted in a market that is characterized by both fragmentation and consolidation,” wrote Mulligan. “These opposing forces are shaping today’s market and will do so in the coming years.”