Blog: Independent labels

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

A model for a new music streaming industry

Cover image for A model for a new music streaming industry

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2025

Business Strategy

The music industry is approaching a pivot point. On the one hand, things look positive: we have UMG’s Streaming 2.0 , artist centric licensing, the impending launch of supremium and expanded rights revenue hitting $4.

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DeepSeek and Rednote signal the dawning era of APAC

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Hanna Kahlert

29 Jan 2025

Business Strategy

The AI race is a tense one. Billions of dollars have been poured into the likes of OpenAI. Meanwhile, the US and UK governments, among others, have pledged to invest heavily in AI development, suggesting that they feel it is of critical importance to “win” the new space race.

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State of the independent music economy: Fragmentation AND consolidation

Mark Mulligan

31 Oct 2024

label market shares

Independent labels

MIDiA is excited to announce our latest report “ State of the independent music economy: Fragmentation AND consolidation”. It represents the most extensive piece of research we have ever done. Through a combination of our annual Independent Label and Distributor Survey and an exhaustive (and exhausting) programme of desk research, MIDiA collected company level revenue data totalling $10.

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Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Cover image for Global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2024

recorded music 2023

recorded music revenues

Growth is back! After a slower 2022, global recorded music revenues grew by 9.8% in 2023 to reach $35.1 billion, compared to 7.1% in 2022, which means that the market is now more than double (124.5%) the size it was in 2015.

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MIDiA independent label and distributor survey

Cover image for MIDiA independent label and distributor survey

Mark Mulligan

14 Mar 2024

Independent labels

MIDiA is fielding its annual independent label and distributor survey . This is the chance for the independent sector to have its voice heard. Given all of the changes that are taking place in the streaming economy, there has perhaps never been a more important time for this.

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Independent labels and distributors: take our survey!

Cover image for Independent labels and distributors: take our survey!

Mark Mulligan

13 Feb 2023

Independent labels

independent record labels

Independent label survey

Measuring the actual contribution of the independent sector to the global recorded music market is an important but difficult task. The traditional way of thinking about independent market share is to take the total market and remove the majors’ revenues from that.

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What comes next in the music streaming model makeover

Cover image for What comes next in the music streaming model makeover

Tatiana Cirisano

17 Jan 2023

Music streaming

Independent artists

The independent music community has been rallying for change to the streaming payment model for years. Now, major labels are joining the chorus. Why? The pro-rata model has long benefited bigger record labels, but their cut of the pie is now diminishing due to a number of factors: The growth of independent music, fragmentation of consumption, localisation of music scenes, and the vast amount of music hitting streaming services.

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Beatport’s LabelRadar acquisition is the latest sign of the platforms era

Cover image for Beatport’s LabelRadar acquisition is the latest sign of the platforms era

Tatiana Cirisano

22 Jul 2022

This week, online music marketplace Beatport acquired LabelRadar, a service that streamlines the demo submission process for artists and labels. Following previous strategic acquisitions, the deal represents another step in Beatport’s path towards becoming a creative hub for creators and labels alike (which, in dance music, can often be the same thing).

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Recorded music market shares 2021 – Red letter year

Cover image for Recorded music market shares 2021 – Red letter year

Mark Mulligan

18 Mar 2022

Record music market

global music revenues

label trade revenues 2021

We suggested back in 2020, that 2021 was going to be a strong year for the recorded music market. As it turns out, 2021 was the fastest growing year in living memory, with growth across most formats, contrasting strongly with 2020 when streaming was the only growth segment.

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Music market shares: independent labels and artists are even bigger than you thought

Cover image for Music market shares: independent labels and artists are even bigger than you thought

Mark Mulligan

3 Dec 2021

Independent labels

record label market shares

It has been a long time since the music industry has been in such good shape. So long, in fact, that there are not too many executives left who worked through the pre-crash days. 2021 was the year in which the major label groups capitalised on the momentum, with Universal and Warner going public, and Sony going on a spending spree.

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Women making music: The COVID impact

Cover image for Women making music: The COVID impact

Hanna Kahlert

8 Mar 2021

international womens day

The last 12 months have been marked mostly by the coronavirus pandemic, which has pushed much of life to the digital world. 70% of independent artists overall spent much of the time over lockdowns creating more music, many taking more autonomy over their own marketing and production.

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Smaller independents and artists direct grew fastest in 2020

Cover image for Smaller independents and artists direct grew fastest in 2020

Mark Mulligan

1 Mar 2021

Streaming Music

Independent labels

Last year we identified a small but crucial metric from Spotify’s annual report: the share of all streams accounted for by majors and independent licensing body Merlin. It was crucial because it enabled us to segment the streaming market in detail, when combined with market data from majors and independent artist platforms .

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Last call for the global independent label survey

Cover image for Last call for the global independent label survey

Mark Mulligan

18 Feb 2021

Independent label survey

Independent labels

With 2020 now comfortably behind us and public companies in their earnings cycle, a clear picture is starting to emerge of how the global recorded music market performed. MIDiA is midway through fielding the global independent label survey that will help create the definitive view of how the independent sector fared in 2020 and its contribution to the global market.

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Taylor Swift and the changing tide of artist power

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Hanna Kahlert

16 Feb 2021

Media and Marketing

Cultural trends

In the latest episode of a long-running feud between Taylor Swift and Big Machine Records, the western princess turned pop icon is releasing the first of her original re-recorded albums under her own ownership.

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The IFPI Confirms 2019 was the Independents' Year for Streaming

Cover image for The IFPI Confirms 2019 was the Independents' Year for Streaming

Mark Mulligan

4 May 2020

Independent labels

UPDATE: this post has been updated to correct an erroneous data point. Previously it stated that independent market share was 41%. It has been corrected to 29% Recently I wrote about how a little-known Spotify statistic revealed that independents (labels and artists) outperformed the majors on its platform in 2019 .

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Independents Grew Fastest on Spotify in 2019, But There’s a Twist

Cover image for Independents Grew Fastest on Spotify in 2019, But There’s a Twist

Mark Mulligan

28 Apr 2020

Independent artists

Independent labels

Tomorrow (Wednesday 29 th April) Spotify announces its Q1 2020 results, at which point we will find out whether it had a COVID-bounce like Netflix did ( adding 15.8 million subscribers in Q1 ) or whether growth slowed.

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What Sony Music's Purchase Of Essential Music Says About The Future Of The Music Industry

Mark Mulligan

2 Mar 2016

Independent label services company Essential Music & Marketing is no longer independent, having just been acquired by Sony Musi c and merged with Sony’s label services division Red to create a new entity: Red Essential.

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