Each year, Spotify issues an annual report to its shareholders on the New York Stock Exchange.
Within that SEC filing, Spotify reveals the market share of four recorded music companies on its platform: Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and Merlin. (The latter represents tens of thousands of indies.)
This figure from Spotify specifically reflects the aforementioned four firm’s market share of all music plays on the platform in the prior year.
It is a ‘represented’ market share – i.e. the four companies don’t need to own the music in question, they just have to represent it. (Merlin, for example, does not distribute nor own music; it strikes a licensing agreement with Spotify on behalf of its members, and collects and distributes income from the platform based on this agreement.)
Important to note that many Merlin members – including DistroKid and others – strike their own direct agreements with Spotify. Therefore their market share is not represented below.
