Yesterday, our exclusive decade-wide analysis revealed that Sony’s RCA was the top performing record company of the 2010s.
But at corporate group level, there could only be one winner across the decade: Universal Music.
Helped by its acquisition of the former fourth major, EMI Music, in 2012, Universal was the clear market-leader across the 10 years, according to Official Charts Company data. It secured a clean sweep of all seven of Music Week’s key market share metrics, including All Albums AES (34.8%) and Artist Albums AES (34.7%), as well as Track Streams, Track Sales, Artist Albums Sales, Compilation Album Sales and All Album Sales.
No wonder Universal Music UK & Ireland chairman/CEO David Joseph – who led the major throughout the decade – was thrilled with the result.
“Our success is testament both to our incredible artists and label teams who have risen to all the challenges our ever-evolving industry has thrown up over the past 10 years,” he told Music Week.
“But it’s not just about market share. The fact that our achievements have not been limited to any one musical lane highlights once again the powerful diversity of our artists, something which I know will serve us well as we look to build on a very positive start to the new decade.”
The major scored three of the decade’s Top 10 biggest-selling albums: Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour (Capitol, No.6, 2,592,830); Emeli Sandé’s Our Version Of Events (Virgin, No.8, 2,432,120) and Take That’s Progress (Polydor, No.9, 2,394,875).
The next big question: can anyone stop Universal dominating the next decade as well? Over to you…
* To read Music Week’s full, exclusive 2010s analysis, see the current issue of Music Week, available now, or click here. To subscribe to Music Week and never miss a vital music biz story, click here.
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