The U.K. major label marketshare stats for H1 2019 are in, with Universal winning the race by a rise of 2.3% year-on-year while the independent sector is up 0.4%. Sony is down 0.8% and Warner has dropped by 1.8%.
The stats for 2019 come courtesy of the Official Charts Company and were first printed in U.K. trade title Music Week. They are as of chart week 26 (ending 6/28) and, as always, we’re using the AES all albums figure.
Universal has had a particularly good run of late with a share of 37.3% across the last six months. That’s thanks to the runaway success of breakout star Lewis Capaldi (Virgin EMI) and best-selling albums from Ariana Grande (Island), Billie Eilish (Polydor) and the A Star is Born ST (Polydor), as well as top singles by Mabel (Polydor), Sam Smith & Normani (Capitol) and Post Malone (Island). It’s the best performance for the label in a while—UMG ended 2016 and 2017 at 35%, rising to 36.2% in 2018. This time last year, its share was 35%. Virgin EMI and Polydor are the top two performing imprints with 11.0% and 9.2% respectively.