A mammoth first quarter of 2025 saw Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) surge into first place in the current market share rankings of U.S. record labels so far this year.
Big records from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Gracie Abrams, Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga propelled IGA to a 12.67% current share, up from 9.10% over the same period in 2024. That’s just enough to edge out longtime leader REPUBLIC, which rode a wave of releases by The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen and continued success from Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan to a 12.52% current share of the market through March 27, 2025, down slightly from the industry-leading 12.84% it held after the first three months of 2024.
Those two labels — IGA’s share also includes Verve Label Group, while REPUBLIC’s includes Island, Mercury, Big Loud and indie distributor Imperial — helped parent company the Universal Music Group (UMG) boost its year over year market share by nearly three percentage points, to a 36.82% current share so far in 2025 from 2024’s 33.90%. In doing so, UMG widened its lead over No. 2 label group Sony Music Group, which increased its own share year over year to 27.37%, up from 26.91% this time last year. That growth from those two companies largely came at the expense of the indie sector, which fell to a 19.92% current share by distribution ownership this year, down from 23.21% in 2024. (By label ownership, the indies are the biggest sector; see below.) Meanwhile, the third major label group, the Warner Music Group (WMG), largely remained static at 15.89% current share this year, down slightly from 15.98% last year.
Given the reorganization of UMG last year — in which Capitol Music Group also reports through IGA’s chairman/CEO John Janick, while Def Jam reports through REPUBLIC CEO Monte Lipman — Interscope Capitol’s combined share would grow even further, to 17.23%, which would best WMG’s mark for the quarter. REPUBLIC’s share, in addition to Def Jam, would be 13.07%. Most notable among the labels under the REPUBLIC umbrella is Island’s continued growth. After a year in which Carpenter and Roan broke out as superstars, the likes of Lola Young and Gigi Perez are helping Island to continue to bloom: At 2.94% current share this year, Island would have been the eighth-biggest label if broken out on its own, and its share is up significantly from the 0.71% it posted in the first three months of 2024, when it would have ranked 20th.
Below the top two labels come a pair of WMG companies in Warner Records (6.17%, which includes Warner Nashville, Warner Latin and Rhino) and Atlantic Records (5.58%, inclusive of 300 Elektra Entertainment and 10K Projects). Warner’s mark is down from the 6.41% it enjoyed in Q1 2024, when it kicked off the year with breakout singles from Benson Boone and Teddy Swims; while Atlantic’s number is up from last year’s 5.14%, as it shifts into a new era following a leadership shakeup last September.
In fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, are a trio of labels separated by just over a half a percentage in market share: RCA (4.83%, down from 5.13% last year), Capitol (4.56%, down from last year’s 4.71%) and Columbia (4.25%, up big from last year’s 3.71%). Capitol’s market share includes Virgin Music, Motown/Quality Control, Capitol Christian Music Group, Astralwerks and Blue Note; Columbia’s includes some labels from indie distributor RED.
Following Columbia, in eighth place, is the other big story of the year so far: Alamo Records, which posted a 2.91% current share, up significantly from its 2024 mark of 1.53%, driven by the success of Drake and PartyNextDoor’s Some Sexy Songs 4 You album, among other releases. (Alamo also operates an indie distributor, Santa Anna.) Another trio of Sony labels follows: Sony Latin in ninth (1.89%, down from 2.38%), Sony Nashville in 10th (1.83%, down from 2.08%) and Epic Records just outside the top 10 (1.56%, down from 2.99%).
In overall market share — which combines all of a label’s output in the marketplace, whereas current refers to music from the most recent 18 months — Interscope’s deep catalog and current surge sees it secure first place, at 10.81%, up from last year’s 9.84%. REPUBLIC slipped to second, despite slightly increasing its overall market share to 9.95% from last year’s 9.94%, while Atlantic’s formidable catalog sees it leapfrog Warner Records up to third in overall share, at 7.67%, relatively steady from last year’s 7.65%. Warner, similarly, is almost the same as last year, as its fourth place showing of 6.73% is in line with last year’s 6.72%; Capitol and Columbia, in fifth and sixth, are down a small amount year over year (6.05% from 6.14% for Capitol; 5.38% from 5.79% for Columba), while RCA in seventh is also essentially static, at 5.19% from 5.20%. Epic, meanwhile, jumps to eighth (2.42%, down from 2.81%), while Sony Nashville (1.95%, down from 1.97%) and Def Jam (1.80%, down from 1.97%) round out the top 10.
In terms of catalog — all titles older than 18 months, which generally favors labels with a lengthy history of hits — the top eight are the same as in overall market share, with IGA, REPUBLIC and Atlantic leading the way. In ninth, Def Jam’s 2.19% sees it move up, while Concord’s 2.05% moves it into the top 10, with Sony Nashville (1.98%) dropping down to 11th. Concord and Sony Nashville grew their shares year over year, while Def Jam’s is down slightly.
Those figures are all by distribution ownership, whereby Universal, Sony and Warner also receive market share credit from their owned independent label distributors. By label ownership, however, the independent community is by far the largest sector of the business, racking up a 37.87% current market share so far this year, down from 38.25% in 2024; and a 36.03% overall market share this year, down from 36.82% last year.
