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Consolidation

World music market sales shares, according to IFPI (2005)

Prior to December 1998, the industry was dominated by the "Big Six": Sony Music and BMG had not yet merged, and PolyGram had not yet been absorbed into Universal Music Group. After the PolyGram-Universal merger, the 1998 market shares reflected a "Big Five", commanding 77.4% of the market, as follows, according to MEI World Report 2000:

In 2004, the joint venture of Sony and BMG created the 'Big Four' at a time the global market was estimated at $30–40 billion. Total annual unit sales (CDs, music videos, MP3s) in 2004 were 3 billion. Additionally, according to an IFPI report published in August 2005, the big four accounted for 71.7% of retail music sales:

US music market shares, according to Nielsen SoundScan (2011)

Nielsen SoundScan in their 2011 report noted that the "big four" controlled about 88% of the market:

After the absorption of EMI by Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group in December 2011 the "big three" were created and on January 8, 2013, after the merger there were layoffs of forty workers from EMI. European regulators forced Universal Music to spin off EMI assets which became the Parlophone Label Group which was acquired by Warner Music Group. Nielsen SoundScan issued a report in 2012, noting that these labels controlled 88.5% of the market, and further noted:

Note: the IFPI and Nielsen Soundscan use different methodologies, which makes their figures difficult to compare casually, and impossible to compare scientifically.

Market shares as of September 2018 are as follows:

The largest players in this industry own more than 100 subsidiary record labels or sublabels, each specializing in a certain market niche. Only the industry's most popular artists are signed directly to the major label. These companies account for more than half of US market share. However, this has fallen somewhat in recent years, as the new digital environment allows smaller labels to compete more effectively.