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The world music market, or global music market consists of record companies, labels and publishers that distribute recorded music products internationally and that often control the rights to those products. Some music labels are "independent," while others are subsidiaries of larger corporate entities or international media groups.

The world music market is currently dominated by the "big four" record groups, Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner, each of which consists of many smaller companies and labels serving under different regions and markets.

Contents 1 Terminology and business structure 2 Reported statistics 2.1 Albums sales and market value 2.2 Singles sales 2.3 Recorded Music Interim Physical Retail Sales in 2005 2.4 Miscellaneous 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

A record company is an entity that manages sound recording-related brands and trademarks which consist of their owned labels; their owned and licensed master recordings; and various related ancillary businesses such as home video and DVD's.

The music groups coordinate the production, licensing, and copyright protection of sound recordings & videos and maintain contracts with recording artists and production companies as well as provide a distribution structure for their various owned and non-owned labels.

Record labels sign, market, publicize, develop and promote as well as provide sales support to the larger distribution companies for their releases and artists.

Labels may comprise a record group which is, in turn, controlled by a music group. As such, a larger umbrella label may have a number of sub-labels releasing music.

Music publishers exist separately (even if sharing the same ultimate holding company or brand name), and they represent the rights in the compositions - i.e. the music as written rather than as recorded.

Record companies and record labels that are not under the control of the Big Four music groups and music publishers that are not one of the Big Four are generally considered to be independent, even if they are part of large corporations with complex structures. Some prefer to use the term indie label to refer to only those independent labels that adhere to criteria of corporate structure and size, and some consider an indie label to be almost any label that releases non-mainstream music, regardless of its corporate structure.

Nielsen SoundScan reported that the big four accounted for 81.87% of the U.S. music market in 2005:^[1]

• Universal Music Group (France based) — 31.71%
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment, inc. (Japan/Germany based) — 25.61% (13.83% Sony, 11.78% BMG)
• Warner Music Group (USA based) — 15%
• EMI Group (UK based) — 9.55%
• independent labels — 18.13%

and in 2004, 72.64%:

• Universal Music Group — 29.59%
• Sony BMG — 28.46% (13.26% Sony, 15.20% BMG)
• Warner Music Group — 14.68%
• EMI Group — 9.91%
• independent labels — 27.36%

The global market was estimated at $30-40 billion in 2004.^[2] Total annual unit sales (CDs, music videos, mp3s) in 2004 were 3 billion.

According to an IFPI report published in August 2005,^[3] the big four accounted for 71.7% of retail music sales:

• Universal Music Group — 25.5%
• Sony BMG Music Entertainment — 21.5%
• EMI Group — 13.4%
• Warner Music Group — 11.3%
• independent labels — 28.4%

Prior to December 1998, the industry was dominated by the "Big Six": Sony Music and BMG had not yet merged, and PolyGram had not yet been absorbed into Universal Music Group. After the PolyGram-Universal merger, the 1998 market shares reflected a "Big Five", commanding 77.4% of the market, as follows, according to MEI World Report 2000:

• Universal Music Group including PolyGram — 21.1%
• Sony Music — 17.4%
• EMI — 14.1%
• Warner Music Group — 13.4%
• BMG — 11.4%
• independent labels — 22.6%

The following table shows album sales and market value in the world in the 1990s–2000s.

N	Country	Album Sales Share	Share of World Market Value
1	USA	37-40%	30-35%
	EU	30-32%	31-34%
2	Japan	9-12%	16-19%
3	UK	7-9%	6.4-9.1%
4	Germany	7-8%	6.4-8.3%
5	France	4.5-5.5%	5.4-6.3%
6	Canada	2.6-3.3%	1.9-2.8%
7	Australia	1.5-1.8%	1.5-2.0%
8	Brazil	2.0-3.8%	1.1-3.1%
9	Italy	1.7-2.0%	1.5-2.0%
10	Spain	1.7-2.3%	1.4-1.8%
11	Netherlands	1.2-1.8%	1.3-1.8%
12	Mexico	2.1-4.6%	0.8-1.8%
13	Belgium	0.7-0.8%	0.8-1.2%
14	Switzerland	0.75-0.9%	0.8-1.1%
15	Austria	0.5-0.7%	0.8-1.0%
16	Sweden	0.7-0.9%	0.7-1.0%
17	Russia	2.0-2.9%	0.5-1.4%
18	Taiwan	0.9-1.6%	0.5-1.1%
19	Argentina	0.5-0.7%	0.5-1.0%
20	Denmark	0.45-0.65%	0.5-0.8%

Physical single sales in the world in the 90s-00s and digital single sales in 2005.

N	Country	Physical Sales Share	Digital Sales Share in 2005
	EU	34-50%	13.2%
1	Japan	26-32%	1.7%
2	USA	4-25%	85%
3	UK	14.5-16%	6.3%
4	Germany	9-12%	5%
5	France	4-12.5%	1.9%
6	Australia	1.8-4.6%	0.48%
7	Netherlands	1.3-1.7%	< 0.2%
8	Belgium	0.8-1.8%	< 0.2%
9	Sweden	0.6-0.96%	< 0.2%
10	Switzerland	0.5-0.92%	< 0.2%
11	Austria	0.58-0.82%	< 0.2%
12	Italy	0.3-1.0%	< 0.2%
13	Spain	0.3-0.7%	< 0.2%
14	Norway	0.3-0.47%	< 0.2%
15	Ireland	0.2-0.5%	< 0.2%
16	Canada	0.1-0.6%	< 0.2%
17	Portugal	0.01-1.0%	< 0.2%
18	RSA	0.02-0.45%	< 0.1%
19	New Zealand	0.19-0.29%	< 0.1%
20	Denmark	0.10-0.25%	< 0.1%

all figures in millions

		UNITS				VALUE		CHANGE
		Singles	CD	DVD	Total Units	$US	Local Currency	Units	Value
1	USA	14.7	300.5	11.6	326.8	4783.2	4783.2	-5.70%	-5.30%
2	Japan	28.5	93.7	8.5	113.5	2258.2	239759	-6.90%	-9.20%
3	UK	24.3	66.8	2.9	74.8	1248.5	666.7	-1.70%	-4.00%
4	Germany	8.5	58.7	4.4	71	887.7	689.7	-7.70%	-5.80%
5	France	11.5	47.3	4.5	56.9	861.1	669.1	7.50%	-2.70%
6	Italy	0.5	14.7	0.7	17	278	216	-8.40%	-12.30%
7	Canada	0.1	20.8	1.5	22.3	262.9	325	0.70%	-4.60%
8	Australia	3.6	14.5	1.5	17.2	259.6	335.9	-22.90%	-11.80%
9	Spain	1	17.5	1.1	19.1	231.6	180	-13.40%	-15.70%
10	Netherlands	1.2	8.7	1.9	11.1	190.3	147.9	-31.30%	-19.80%
11	Russia	-	25.5	0.1	42.7	187.9	5234.7	-9.40%	21.20%
12	Mexico	0.1	33.4	0.8	34.6	187.9	2082.3	44.00%	21.50%
13	Brazil	0.01	17.6	2.4	24	151.7	390.3	-20.40%	-16.50%
14	Austria	0.6	4.5	0.2	5	120.5	93.6	-1.50%	-9.60%
15	Switzerland **	0.8	7.1	0.2	7.8	115.8	139.2	n/a	n/a
16	Belgium	1.4	6.7	0.5	7.7	115.4	89.7	-13.80%	-8.90%
17	Norway	0.3	4.5	0.1	4.8	103.4	655.6	-19.70%	-10.40%
18	Sweden	0.6	6.6	0.2	7.2	98.5	701.1	-29.00%	-20.30%
19	India	-	10.9	-	55.3	79.2	3456.6	-19.20%	-2.40%
20	Denmark	0.1	4	0.1	4.2	73.1	423.5	3.70%	-4.20%
	Top 20	74.5	757.1	42.8	915.2	12378.7		-6.60%	-6.30%

In its June 30, 2000 annual report filed with the SEC, Seagram reported that Universal Music Group was responsible for 40% of worldwide classical music sales over the preceding year.^[4]

1. ^ Paul Cashmere (2006-01-05). Universal Is The Biggest Music Company of 2005. Undercover (Australia). Retrieved on May 27, 2006.
2. ^ According to the RIAA the world music market is estimated at $40 billion, but according to IFPI (2004) it is estimated at $32 billion.
3. ^ http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/publications/rin_order.html
4. ^ http://www.secinfo.com/dsvr4.58n4.htm#445

http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20050802.html (updated link for reference 3)

• List of record labels and Category:Record labels
• Best selling music artists - World's top-selling music artists chart.

• http://www.move.de/amm/ECON.htm - CD-Markets size in 1996
• http://www.zobbel.de/ - World records sales in years 1994/95/97/98.
• http://www.HitQuarters.com - World Top 20 A&R Chart