The Empire Strikes Back (on Spotify)

The Empire Strikes Back: The majors and Merlin gained (a bit) of market share on Spotify last year.

It’s become a perennial trade music industry story: The combined global market share of the three major record companies and Merlin on Spotify is in decline.

Well, no more.

In 2025, according to Spotify, this long-running trend was actually reversed. By a sliver, anyway.

Before we get into the numbers, some important clarification:

• This crucial market-share stat, confirmed by Spotify in its annual fiscal report, reveals the platform’s yearly ‘stream share’ for all recorded music represented by Universal, Sony, Warner – including their ‘indie’ distribution arms – plus Merlin.

• ‘Stream share’ in this context means the combined entities’ market share of the total global volume of music streams on Spotify (i.e. not including audiobooks and podcasts).

• Entities not covered by the stat include any label or distributor that licenses Spotify outside of deals inked by UMG/Sony/Warner/Virgin/The Orchard/AWAL/ADA/Merlin.

• This non-major/Merlin cohort includes DistroKid, Empire, OneRPM, UnitedMasters, TooLost, and Believe/TuneCore, plus BMG, which began distributing its catalog to Spotify directly in 2023. It also includes large Merlin members who choose to license Spotify directly, rather than via Merlin’s opt-in collective agreements.

• To reiterate: This is a measurement of streaming volume market share; it’s therefore unaffected by any changes in Spotify’s royalty model (inc. so-called ‘artist-centric’ royalty frameworks).

With that all understood, let’s dig in… (MBW+)