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Indies Own Nearly Half the Global Recorded Music Market. The Major Labels Aren’t Taking It Lying Down

Indie labels own nearly half the global recorded music market, according to a new MIDiA report.

That means that while independent artists and labels were behind the majority of the well over 100,000 new tracks that were being uploaded to digital service providers daily as of early 2023, they only accounted for a bit more than a third of revenue. 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 Mark Mulligan.

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