Record Labels
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The Core Records and Capitol Music Group have signed Hannah McFarland to their joint venture; it is the first signing announced by the two entities. McFarland’s single, “Hey Highway,” out Friday (Oct. 25), will be the first official release from the new label. “Signing with The Core Records and Capitol Music Group feels like the […]
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has promoted Jennifer Knoepfle to Head of U.S. A&R, marking a major leadership shift within the company.
The announcement was made by UMPG Chairman & CEO Jody Gerson on Oct. 22, with Knoepfle reporting directly to Gerson. In her new role, Knoepfle will oversee A&R operations across the U.S., while continuing to hold her position as Executive Vice President of the company.
In this expanded role, Knoepfle is tasked with nurturing UMPG’s creative culture and driving talent development by identifying, signing, and fostering new songwriters, producers, and artists.
Her efforts will extend to legacy artists as well, ensuring that UMPG remains a leader in catalog development and contemporary hitmaking. She will be based at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters.
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“I am overjoyed to promote Jenn to this much-deserved position as Head of U.S A&R. She embodies everything a creative music executive should be; she possesses the ear to identify the best artists and writers—often early in their careers—and knows how to support, nurture and amplify their talents. Additionally, she is a thoughtful leader and mentor to our A&R team. I couldn’t be more excited to continue working with Jenn for years to come!”
As part of her expanded duties, Knoepfle has also appointed three executives to key positions within the U.S. A&R team. Daniella Rasho has been promoted to Director of Global A&R, while Deeba Abrishamchi has been named Director of U.S. A&R. Hollie Boston has also joined the company as Director of U.S. A&R.
Knoepfle commented, “Every day, I am humbled to work alongside some of the most revered musical talent in the world. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to expand my role at UMPG, where I have the privilege of working with one of the very best executives in the business, Jody Gerson. I couldn’t be more excited to take on this new chapter, growing our incredible A&R team and working with them to pursue my greatest passion: discovering and nurturing talent, which remains the lifeblood of our industry.”
Knoepfle joined UMPG in 2022 as EVP and Co-Head of U.S. A&R. Since then, she has signed a diverse roster of talent, including notable songwriters and artists like Jack Antonoff, Lord Huron, Maggie Rogers, and Wallows. Prior to UMPG, she spent 13 years at Sony Music Publishing, where she worked with artists such as Leon Bridges, Tate McRae, and Noah Kahan. Earlier in her career, she served as senior director at ASCAP, where she brought major talents like The Killers and Greg Kurstin to the organization.
UMPG continues to build its global presence with 48 offices across 40 countries, representing a vast catalog of iconic songs and hitmakers, with some of the artists represented including Adele, Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan, and The Weeknd.
Neon Gold and Avenue A Records have joined together to create Futures Music Group, a tech-forward collective of indie labels with an artist-first mentality.
Distributed through Virgin, Futures was co-founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies (Charli XCX, Tove Lo, Marina & The Diamonds, Passion Pit, Matt Maeson) and Avenue A’s Dave Wallace (Barns Courtney, Blossoms, Palace, Self Esteem) in early 2024. When the label group’s first release as Futures, “Home” by Good Neighbours, quickly went viral in January, the song quickly put the band on the map and served as a proof-of-concept for the Futures model. Perhaps the biggest debut single by any artist this year, “Home” was certified platinum in less than nine months.
The Futures roster also includes Phantogram, The Knocks, Barns Courtney, Palace and Mt. Joy, the latter of which was signed through a joint venture with the band’s own Bloom Field Records. (Good Neighbours first EP, including “Home,” are also through Futures until the band’s deal with Capitol/Polydor kicks in January 2025).
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Over time, Futures Music Group will grow to include more indie labels (and artists) under its umbrella. It also intends to build an internal team for digital marketing, sync licensing, sales, content production and more that can be shared between the individual labels.
At Futures, artists are signed to license-based deals, keeping master ownership in the artists’ hands, and the royalty split is kept equitable between the label and artist. In some instances, the split moves further into the artist’s favor after certain profit thresholds are met. This allows for what Davies calls “maximum incentive alignment” between both parties, and it rewards the artist for success.
The deal terms and options are “shorter and less onerous than most competitors,” Davies adds. “Our thing is if we do a great job, then we hope people will just keep rolling through and working with us,” says Wallace. “Keeping artists happy is the name of the game. We don’t want to work with an artist who is only working with us because of a contract. There are not many successful record campaigns that come out of a relationship where the artist is unhappy,” adds Davies.
The company also wants to do right by songwriters. The label group has pledged from now on to give points on every master to any non-producing and non-performing songwriter from the label’s share. (Exact deal points for this are handled on a case-by-case basis).
Along with their commitment to artists, Davies and Wallace of Futures have also spent the last few years studying and investing in how new technology will disrupt the music business. Davies, for his part, co-founded the start-up Medallion, which helped artists like Santigold, Greta Van Fleet, Tycho and more build and own direct relationships with their most passionate fans using web3 technology. The co-founders have also been strategic investors in Big Effect, a digital marketing platform founded by Spotify and UMG alum Mike Biggane, and Notes.fm, a royalty management platform from Stem co-founder Tim Luckow.
“We believe the future of the music industry has never been brighter for artists and the independent sector,” says Davies. “The industry has reached what we believe to be the largest inflection point in the history of the label system, as we are moving into a new music economy that is rightly trending towards artist ownership. We believe there’s a meaningful opportunity for a well-financed and resourced label group with a proven track record to deliver major results for artists on indie terms, which is what we’ve set out to build with Futures.”
The founding team includes: Davies (co-CEO), Wallace (co-CEO), Sarah Kesselman (CMO, general manager), Nicky Berger (COO) and Jeff Lin (CFO).
Ricardo Arjona, the Guatemalan singer/songwriter who has defined Latin music as much for his signature songwriting permeated in storytelling as for his longstanding history of sell-out tours, has signed an exclusive, worldwide distribution deal with Interscope Capitol Labels Group.
Under the new agreement—signed via his label, Metamorfosis, which he created in 2011—Arjona’s vast catalog of nearly 300 songs, plus his future releases, will fall under Interscope Capitol Labels Group, Billboard can reveal. Likewise, Arjona will now be part of the label’s roster.
Arjona’s move to Interscope Capitol follows stints with Sony Music, which was his longtime label and most recently distributed him, and Warner Music.
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The partnership with Interscope Capitol will launch with Arjona’s new studio album, SECO, slated for release in early 2025. The album was written during a difficult time for Arjona, when he was wheelchair bound after a back injury at the end of his tour last December and thought he would no longer be able to perform.
In that period, he wrote “Todo termina,” (Everything Ends). The song is one of three singles from SECO that will be released in November; the other two are “Despacio que hay prisa” and “Todo termina”. Plans call for two additional singles to be released in December, before Arjona kicks off 2025 with a SECO residency in New York and his native Guatemala.
Arjona, whose chart history dates back 30 years, to 1994, has placed five No. 1s and 18 top 10s on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. His last entry on the chart was in 2016. On Top Latin Albums, he’s placed five No. 1s and 15 top 10s. His latest album, released in 2022, peaked at No. 46 on the chart.
But Arjona’s musical output continues to be prolific and his touring record continues to be extraordinary. Last year alone, he landed at No. 11 on Billboard’s year-end Latin touring chart, selling 224,341 tickets and grossing $27.3 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. He is currently the No. 15 highest-grossing Latin touring act of all time, according to Boxscore.
“I speak on behalf of the entire Metamorfosis team when I say we are deeply motivated and profoundly appreciative to collaborate with Interscope Capitol Labels Group,” comments Ricardo Arjona Torres, who is Arjona’s son and runs Metamorfosis. “This resilient team not only showcases a curated and dynamic array of artists but also truly understands their vision.”
“We are incredibly honored to welcome Ricardo Arjona to the Interscope Capitol family. As one of the most iconic artists in the Spanish-speaking world, Ricardo has shaped the musical landscape in ways that transcend generations. We are committed to promoting his legendary catalog while partnering with him on the exciting projects he has in the works,” said Nir Seroussi, executive vice president at Interscope Capitol Labels Group.
“This partnership isn’t just a milestone—it’s a testament to our commitment to artistry, passion, and pushing boundaries,” added Jose Cedeño, SVP of Interscope Capitol Labels Group in Miami. “Ricardo Arjona’s music weaves deep connections between people, and together, we aim to amplify that reach,” he added.
Ricky Montgomery began rehearsing for his tour in late January. The singer/songwriter played shows across America before heading to Europe, Asia and Australia, returning to the U.S. in June. “It had been a long year, and I was also sick,” he says. That’s when he found out his label had dropped him.
“There was a disconnect as far as creative direction,” he explains. “The label didn’t really know what to do with me, and instead of listening to my ideas, they just tried to apply standard pop templates. Ed Sheeran was the one they thought would work.”
That “disconnect” is the subject of Montgomery’s upcoming single, a downcast acoustic ballad out October 24 called “Superfan.” He sings with a deflated quaver: “Team just got the numbers in/Said try it more like Ed Sheeran/But he’s not me, and I’m not him.”
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Being dropped hasn’t hurt Montgomery’s career, though. In fact, he’s now earning more streams — around 2 million streams a day across his catalog — than he was previously. “For better or worse, it’s a social media content game now,” says the 31-year-old singer, who has close to 2 million TikTok followers. “So if you’ve been investing your time into that, the odds are that you’re going to be totally fine if a label decides to drop you.”
Getting dropped is in vogue this year: Two of the biggest breakout artists of 2024, Chappell Roan and Shaboozey, were both cut by major labels before their recent explosive success. And more acts could soon join their ranks, because the major labels have been cutting costs by slashing staff — and dropping artists.
“Each time there have been major staff layoffs across the label systems, concurrently there were artists released from rosters,” says Leon Morabia, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law. “Some artists are really happy about it and relieved, and some artists are very upset. Their reaction ultimately depends on how much they depend on the record company to do what they do.”
Dropped acts lose access to an extended support team; plans for upcoming releases must be jettisoned or heavily reworked; tours can be scrapped. That said, Lulu Pantin, founder of loop legal, is adamant that “being dropped has no bearing on long-term success.” And this is probably more true than ever.
During a recent interview with Bloomberg, Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer pointed out that when he joined the music industry in 1985, labels had a lock on manufacturing, distribution and radio. “We had a lot more power,” he said. Today, in contrast, “the artists have at the very least equal power to us.”
That’s because they can make music cheaply, and promote it internationally, without ever leaving the house. “Artists have to be as good, if not better, at marketing as any professional marketer now,” Montgomery says. “They are, by default, the most experienced person in the room in marketing meetings.”
At the same time, the buttons that labels can push — to get radio play, appearances on award shows and late-night television, and prominent press placements — no longer guarantee real fans. As a result, Montgomery says, “Labels only want to focus on Tiktok or Reels or YouTube Shorts right now. I had three times as many meetings about TikTok strategy as I did about music. There’s no reason you can’t do that stuff on your own.”
Still, getting dropped can be jarring, a corporate version of a breakup. And like a breakup, disentangling takes a while, as it requires additional negotiation between the artist’s team and the label. “It’s not just, someone waves a magic wand and then you’re dropped,” says an A&R who left a major label job earlier this year.
This legal wrangling can be crucial for the next phase of an artist’s career. In a typical record deal, the label enjoys exclusive rights to any songs delivered during the contract period — even if they haven’t come out yet. For artists who are being shown the door, then, “the key point is who gets ownership of the unreleased music,” Pantin says.
Record companies are reluctant to give these rights up, since they helped fund the songs’ creation. To secure the return of unreleased music, artists may have to give the label a concession, either in the form of “an ‘override’ payment or a royalty on sales and streams,” Pantin adds.
If the label refuses to give up the rights to unreleased songs, artists have one other option. “I’ve called labels and asked them to waive the re-recording restriction,” says Tiffany Almy, founder of PKA Law. The re-recording restriction is in place to prevent an artist from putting out a competing version of a song the label already released, a tactic made famous by Taylor Swift with her Taylor’s Version album re-recordings. But the restriction serves no purpose if the label never put out the track in the first place. And if the artist succeeds in convincing the record company to nix that provision, they can then re-cut their music — on their own dime this time — for release.
Another point of negotiation when artists and labels are uncoupling: The act may be able to obtain some additional money, depending on the structure of their contract. “The deal could be worth $500,000, and $150,000 is given to the artist on signing and the rest is for recording,” the former A&R executive explains. “Then when you deliver the album, whatever’s left from the fund is supposed to go into the artist’s pocket.”
Attorneys try to prepare for these situations long before the label is even thinking about trimming rosters by including what’s known as “a pay-or-play provision” in the artist’s initial contract. (The initial deal negotiation period is when lawyers push for other protections as well: “I always try to build in caveats that the re-recording restriction doesn’t apply if the track doesn’t get released within a certain period of time,” Almy says.)
The pay-or-play clause ensures that, “If you get dropped in the middle of the contract period, you will be entitled to at least a portion of the remainder of the fund,” explains Oren Agman, an entertainment attorney. “Labels are now capping that, so they’ll give you maybe 30% or 40% of the balance. [But] if you have no pay-or-play provision, then you’re not getting anything other than the advance.” Jodie Shihadeh, a music lawyer, calls this provision “one of the last key points” when negotiating a record deal.
While the lawyers for both sides go back and forth after an act is dropped, the artist may be stuck twiddling their thumbs. “I’ve seen labels delay responses for months, extending the process and keeping artists in limbo,” Pantin says.
That limbo period matters because an artist technically can’t sign a new deal before getting out of the old agreement. Some do so anyway, figuring a label that dropped them isn’t likely to spend money suing them for breach of contract. “It can be a game of chicken,” the former A&R notes.
For an artist’s collaborators, it may be more than that — they don’t have the potential cushion of a pay-or-play clause. Many labels give a producer half their fee for a track up front, and fork over the rest only when that track comes out, Almy says. A dropped artist may mean a shelved track; for a producer, a shelved track represents lost income. “I’ve called the A&R at the label that dropped the artist and asked them to consider paying the producer for the work that they already did,” Almy says. Mixers are often in the same predicament.
Artists have it easier, because they can just start recording and releasing as they see fit. “I’ve seen some artists where it really helped that they got dropped, even though they didn’t want to be,” Shihadeh says.
Another recent post-drop success story is Gigi Perez, who parted ways with Interscope earlier this year. “I was stuck inside of a machine that didn’t work or make sense for me and I was unhappy,” she wrote in a lengthy message on Instagram on March 8. “I think a ton of artists were/are in this position as this new model of the music industry changes.”
She ended her post on an upbeat note: “Let’s go, bitches.” And in July, she released “Sailor Song,” a muscular folk track that works as well in an arena as it does around a campfire. It proved to be effective on TikTok as well: Users were soon soundtracking tens of thousands of videos with at least three different snippets of the single.
Streams of “Sailor Song” shot up. And on October 8th, Perez announced a new label home: Island Records.
LONDON – Independent labels trade body IMPALA is calling on regulators to investigate Universal Music Group’s acquisition of [PIAS] over concerns that the deal restricts competition in the global record business and “narrows options for artists and labels.”
[PIAS] co-founders Kenny Gates and Michel Lambot announced earlier this week that they were selling their remaining shares in the indie label group to Universal Music Group (UMG), which already owns a 49% stake in the company, for an undisclosed sum.
The deal gives UMG full ownership of [PIAS]’s services division [Integral], which provides physical and digital distribution services to more than 100 indie label partners including ATO, Beggars Group and Secretly Group and will henceforth merge with Virgin Music Group.
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Also falling under UMG’s control because of the share sale is the [PIAS] Label Group, home to indie imprints Play It Again Sam, harmonia mundi, Spinefarm, Source and partner labels such as ATO, Heavenly, Mute and Transgressive. Despite the change in ownership, [PIAS] says its label group business will remain completely autonomous.
In response, IMPALA and several of its associate national trade groups are calling on competition regulators to launch an investigation into what it described as “unchecked concentration in the music market [which] continues to be a serious problem.”
“The bottom line is UMG’s acquisition of [PIAS] will increase the power of [UMG] across Europe and beyond, including the U.K. and the USA, and IMPALA expects regulators in these jurisdictions to take action,” said the Brussels-based organization, which represents over 6,000 indie music companies in Europe, in a press release on Friday (Oct. 18).
Helen Smith, IMPALA’s executive chair, said she “expects” regulators to review the [PIAS] acquisition “and answer the question the industry is asking about how it is possible for UMG to gain more market share after it was already considered too big?”
“A share deal is one thing, this is something else,” said Smith, who is calling for competition officials to assess how the deal impacts physical and digital music markets, including distribution services, “as well as the impact on competitors, digital services, artists and fans.”
Geert de Blaere, the chair of Belgian association BIMA, said that while the Belgian market owes a debt of gratitude to [PIAS] for showing entrepreneurs what is possible, the impact of the company’s takeover by UMG “will be structural, significant and long lasting” for the independent music business.
“This is completely different to a share deal as UMG takes over the market share of [PIAS]. Scale and stability in the whole independent sector will be lost. Incremental shifts in the market across the majors leverages disproportionate influence in the hands of a few companies. Each time that happens the result is more control over how the market develops,” said de Blaere in a statement.
Supporting calls for an investigation, IMPALA chair Dario Draštata said the deal strengthens UMG in terms of market share, “eliminates a principal competitor” and “narrows options for artists and labels.”
Representatives for UMG and [PIAS] did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by Billboard.
The acquisition of [PIAS] by the world’s biggest music company further grows the dominant market share enjoyed by UMG and follows the expiration of a 10-year ban on the music giant acquiring certain music companies or catalogs in Europe.
Those restrictions were placed on UMG in 2012 by the European Commission as one of the conditions of the company’s $1.9 billion takeover of EMI going ahead. As part of that process, the European Union’s executive branch forced UMG to divest the Parlophone Label Group, which was bought by Warner Music Group (WMG) for around $750 million, as well as the offloading of numerous EMI entities in Europe, and the Chrysalis, Mute, Sanctuary and Co-op Music labels.
To receive regulatory approval to buy EMI, UMG committed to not re-acquire any of the assets sold, or re-sign any artists signed with labels it had divested for a period of 10 years. Just a few months after that decade-long ban expired in September 2022, Universal acquired a 49% minority stake in [PIAS], which owns some of those previously off-limits catalogs, including Co-op Music.
On Tuesday (Oct. 15), UMG announced it had grown its minority interest to full ownership, following Gates and Lambot’s decision to sell their controlling stake.
The acquisition of [PIAS] by UMG is part of a growing trend of major labels looking to the independent sector to increase their market share, either by enhancing their distribution offerings for indie artists and labels or by investing in, or buying, independent music companies.
In 2019, UMG acquired independent distribution and marketing company Ingrooves Music Group. One year later, Sony Music bought J. Erving‘s digital distribution and label services company Human Re Sources from Q&A, followed in 2021 by its purchase of artist services company AWAL and Kobalt Neighbouring Rights from Kobalt Music Group.
Major indie label acquisitions over the past decade include WMG buying Netherlands-based Spinnin’ Records in 2017 and Sony Music’s purchase of U.K. dance label Ministry of Sound in 2016.
On a smaller scale, WMG has been steadily growing its recorded music interests in Central and Eastern Europe, buying minority stakes in Croatia’s Dancing Bear Music, Slovenian independent label NIKA and Serbia’s Mascom. And this week, WMG Benelux announced the acquisition of Dutch label Cloud 9 Recordings.
Referencing the major labels’ pursuit of key independent labels, Draštata, who is also president of Balkan indie label trade association RUNDA, said the practice was becoming an “issue across Europe.”
“The loss of such big players for the independent sector compounds the competitive impact and the risk is that this trend will continue,” said Draštata in a statement. “We have been signalling the problem of creeping dominance for many years and it’s time for a new competition approach to address this question.”
Warner Music Japan has appointed longtime Universal executive Takeshi Okada as the label’s new president and CEO, with a start date of Dec. 2. He’ll report to Simon Robson, president of international recorded music, who is temporarily overseeing WMG’s recorded business in the APAC region until a permanent appointee is announced. Okada transitions from EMI […]
Range Media Partners’ Range Music label has signed Disney star Meg Donnelly to a recording contract, the company announced Friday (Oct. 11). The label is distributed through Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music & Artist Label Services.
Best known for her roles in the Zombies film franchise and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Donnelly is currently working on new music and released the single “by my heart” on Friday. A press release adds that she has completed her work on the Zombies series after six years.
Range Music partner Jared Cotter, who also co-manages Shaboozey, led the signing.
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“I’ve admired Meg’s talent and tenacity for years, and I’m thrilled to finally have the opportunity to work with her,” Cotter said in a statement. “She is a genre-melding artist that has had multi-format success, and Range Music is uniquely positioned to help her reach superstar status. We’re very much looking forward to being a part of her journey to the top.”
Donnelly was named Radio Disney’s NBT (Next Big Thing) in 2018 and has since performed alongside artists including the Jonas Brothers, Avril Lavigne and Alessia Cara; she also recently opened for Doja Cat. In February, she released the single “title,” a collaboration with the producer Tenroc. Her creative director is Max Pham, who has worked with A-listers including Ariana Grande, Justin Timberlake and Rosalía.
Kasual Kas, who manages Donnelly at Big Wins Only, said the team “chose Range because of their incredible creative team and what they’ve been able to build. It feels really special. Their entire staff felt young, hungry, and really understood the long-term vision for Meg as an artist so it was an easy decision for us. On the business side, Range was also extremely flexible and understood that deals are structured differently now for artists, and they made sure to champion ownership. We were in talks with many labels, but this one truly felt like a partnership and that’s what we always wanted.”
Added Kristina Mazzolla, who also serves on Donnelly’s management team: “Meg is an undeniable superstar, who is so certain in her vision and was willing to hold out until the right partner came along. For Meg, that partner was Range. After the release of ‘title,’ it was clear Range truly understood the path Meg is carving out for herself. The sky’s the limit for Meg and I am excited for the world to experience her as an artist.”
Launched in 2020, the Range Media music division is led by managing partners Matt Graham, Jack Minihan, Tyler Henry, Melissa Ruderman, Chris Thomas, Evan Winiker, Cory Litwin and Shawn McSpadden, along with partners Rachel Douglas, Ace Christian, Joel Zimmerman and Cotter.
Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) has launched a synch licensing division dubbed Big SYNQ and tapped Maria Alonte to lead it as senior vp of synchronization, the company tells Billboard. The new division will oversee all aspects of synch licensing and placement for Big Machine Label Group and its publishing division Big Machine Music, as […]
As the third quarter of 2024 comes to a close, a familiar label is atop the current market share standings: Republic, which for the second straight quarter maintains a market share north of 15%, a remarkable achievement.
But while the story of Republic’s second quarter was the dominance of Taylor Swift — whose Tortured Poets Department remains far and away the biggest album of the year so far, more than doubling the second-placed title and still going strong — the story of its third quarter is the huge surge of Island Records, which is included under Republic’s market share alongside Mercury Records, Big Loud Records, Cash Money and indie distributor Imperial.
Buoyed by the breakout successes of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, Island posted a 3.81% current share (defined as released within the past 18 months) for the three months between June 27 and Sept. 26. If Island were broken out on its own, that would have been good for seventh among all labels for that period, which boosted its nine-month current market share to 2.15% — about 3.5 times higher than its current market share was through the first nine months of 2023, while that 3.81% mark for the third quarter was 6.5 times higher than for the corresponding three-month period in 2023. (With Carpenter’s Short N Sweet and Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess at Nos. 1 and 2 on the Billboard 200 in this first week of the fourth quarter, that momentum is likely to continue.)
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That helped Republic post a 15.21% current market share through the first nine months of the year, itself a huge jump from its industry-leading 12.28% through three quarters of last year. But it wasn’t just Island: Republic itself is still floating on its TTPD high, while Post Malone’s F1-Trillion helped Big Loud and Mercury contribute to Republic’s share, too. And while Republic has receded slightly from the 15.72% it posted at midyear — when it outstripped the entire Warner Music Group — any label putting up a number higher than 15% is enjoying a massive year.
On the other coast, Universal Music Group’s other juggernaut, Interscope Geffen A&M, also saw a huge surge in the third quarter, which boosted its nine-month current share into double digits, as it posted a 10.13% share — up from 9.51% at the midyear mark and the 8.55% it held through the same period last year. The enduring success of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” — which will get a Super Bowl-sized bump early next year, too — and Billie Eilish’s still-hot Hit Me Hard And Soft album helped Interscope become the only other label to reach higher than 10%. (Interscope’s share also includes Verve Label Group.)
The success of both Republic and Interscope — the two labels around which UMG reorganized earlier this year — helped parent company Universal improve more than two percentage points in current share over the same period last year, jumping from 34.61% through nine months in 2023 to 36.65% this year. That gain has come at the expense of the other two majors, which slipped a bit year over year: Sony Music Group dipped from 27.50% through the first nine months of 2023 to 25.89% through the first three quarters of 2024; while Warner Music Group dropped from 17.46% last year to 16.25% this year for the same period, though the latter recovered enough from its 15.68% mark at midyear to climb back above Republic Records.
Year over year, the indie sector by distribution ownership also grew, up to a 21.21% current share through the first nine month of this year, as opposed to 20.43% during the same period last year, a significant uptick; the biggest song of the year so far, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” was released by indie EMPIRE. (EMPIRE does not report its market share to Luminate, so its individual share cannot be broken out.) By label ownership, the indie sector remains the biggest segment of the business, racking up a 37.09% current share of the market, though that has come down somewhat from the 39.49% it had through the same period in 2023.
Beyond Republic and Interscope, there is more good news from Warner Records (which includes catalog label Rhino and parts of Warner Nashville), as it stays on the hot streak it has been on for the entirety of 2024. Its 6.54% nine-month mark keeps it in third place once again, a full percentage point above fourth-placed Atlantic (which includes 300 Elektra Entertainment), which posted a 5.51% current mark, better than its first two quarters but still down significantly from its 7.39% mark at the three-quarter period of 2023. (Remarkably, despite coming out of the gate so hot this year, Warner Records hasn’t cooled down: its 6.98% third quarter was its best three-month period of the year.)
In fifth and sixth are a pair of Sony Music labels that move up a spot in the rankings year over year, though both dropped in market share over the same period last year: Columbia Records, which includes some RED labels in its share, posted a 4.41% current mark, a slight uptick from its midyear 4.35% but down from last year’s 4.93% nine-month mark, when it was sixth; and RCA, at 4.30%, a dip from the 4.64% it had nine months into 2023, though it is up from seventh to sixth for this quarter. Capitol Music Group, in seventh place so far this year, posted a 4.04% current share; through nine months of 2023, it was in fourth place, at 6.01%.
Epic Records, with several high-flying hip-hop releases this year from Future, boosts its share from 2.39% three quarters through 2023 to 2.79% through the first three quarters of this year, rising to eighth place; while Sony Nashville (2.10%, down from 2.50%) and Sony Music Latin (2.05%, up from 1.96%), round out the top 10 labels by current share.
Overall market share — which combines all a label’s releases in the marketplace, rather than just those of the past 18 months — rearranges the board slightly, though Republic (10.49%) and Interscope (9.98%) still lead the way, both with slightly improved totals from last year’s period. Atlantic’s vast catalog means that it leapfrogs Warner Records into third, with a 7.66% overall share (down from 8.31% last year), while Warner’s 6.86% — up from 6.63% in 2023 — sees it move from fifth place last year into fourth this year. Capitol and Columbia come in fifth and sixth, though in a virtual tie at 5.87%; Capitol edged out Columbia by three thousandths of a percentage point, essentially a rounding error. RCA (5.03%), Epic (2.75%), Sony Nashville (2.07%) and Universal Music Nashville (1.84%) round out the top 10.
Among the label groups, overall market share remained largely static year over year: UMG and Sony each inched up, to 38.47% and 27.25% respectively year over year, while Warner dipped slightly to 18.42% and the indies, at 15.85%, remained flat. The catalog side is largely the same story: UMG dipped two tenths of a percent year over year, while Sony gained half a point and WMG and the indies were down slightly. Among the individual labels, Interscope took the top catalog slot, jumping above Republic to take a 9.93% share of the market, with Republic’s 8.87% edging out Atlantic’s 8.39%.