Annual IFPI report: independents ruled global market share in 2017

According to the annual IFPI report on music industry, worldwide money going to artists and labels in the year amounted to $17.3bn, up 8.1% year-on-year. "Music Business Worldwide" published an in-depth analysis of the report to understand who owned what in terms of market share.

According to MBW, the independent sector share last year is $5.17bn, or 29.88% of the overall pie. In 2016, the equivalent figures for the independents were $4.91bn, or 30.68%. So the independent sector was actually the biggest player in the global recorded music market in 2017, slightly ahead of Universal (29.88% vs. 29.78%).

For the streaming recorded music area, the total for 2017 - according to IFPI - was $6.6bn. Subtracting the major’s reported streaming revenues leaves the indies with $1.29bn: 19.55% of the 2017 global streaming market. This is up over 2% on 2016 – but still surprisingly low when you consider that all of these market shares are based on distribution, rather than copyright ownership, and independents are theoretically less reliant on major labels to distribute their music online than they are in stores.

In the world of physical recorded music, independent market share of physical revenues is booming. In 2017, according to MBW's calculations, the independents turned over $2.06bn from physical sales, resulting in a 39.62% global market share. And in 2016, the indies generated $2.17bn, claiming a 39.45% market share.