With five successive years of growth, the recorded music market has transitioned from a recovering industry into a thriving business. The stars are aligning, with growing consumer demand, business model innovation, a golden era for independent artists and surging interest from institutional investors. 2019 more than just picked up where 2018 left off; it was a year of accelerated growth and illustration of a market that, while dominated by streaming, has many other strings to its bow.

Companies and brands mentioned in this report: ADA, Believe, BMG, CD Baby, Concord, Downtown Music Holdings, Fuga, Kobalt, Level, Sony Music, Spotify, Tencent, The Orchard, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group

Methodological notes: 

1. All revenue            referenced in this report are            USD with all conversions from            currencies calculated taking the average            exchange rate for each quarter            the year. No constant currency            are used in this report.
2. Independent revenue            measured on a distribution basis,            an ownership basis. Therefore, independent            that is distributed via a            record label or a wholly            major label distributor will appear            the revenue of the respective            record label