The world’s biggest label is dropping off as indies rise
The world’s largest label is no longer the world’s most valuable music company and now its shares are dropping as independent music reigns.
The music industry is transforming and independent artists are coming to the forefront. Music streaming is shaping this transformation, led by Spotify who overtook Universal Music Group (UMG) as the world’s most valuable music company this month.
Now, the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal are reporting a major slump in UMG shares. Despite posting their 12th consecutive quarter of revenue growth for Q2 2024, their shares have dropped 20%. It turns out that, despite posting profits, investors were expecting much more growth in UMG’s streaming revenues.
The latest predictions suggest that global paid streaming revenues will grow to $29.8 billion in 2024, a rise of 12.9%. Spotify are currently rocketing ahead, reporting 21% year-on-year growth in Premium revenues for Q2. However, UMG’s results show their revenues from subscription streaming grow by only 6.5%. This suggests that as streaming grows, major labels don’t have the same stranglehold they once did.
This all points towards independent artists and indie labels taking the lead of global growth. Earlier this year, Spotify revealed that 26% of streams on their platform were made on independent music. A recent report from Luminate showed that independent artists actually dominate on-demand streams between 1-10 million with 61.5% of the share.
Major labels still hold a major grip on the higher streaming numbers, though. For example, independent artists only make up 7.1% of the artists getting more than 500 million streams. However, it’s telling that whilst music streaming booms the world’s largest music company fails to grow at the same rate. The age of independent musicians is truly here.
How independent musicians can release their music to the world
One of the primary reasons for which independent music has grown so significantly is how simple it is for artists to release their music to the world today. At RouteNote, we empower artists of all sizes from around the world with freely available distribution to all of the world’s top music platforms.
That includes free, unlimited distribution to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TIDAL, and many more. Artists choose whether to upload for free keeping a generous 85% of all the revenues their music generates, or to upgrade for a small cost to receive 100% of the money their music makes.