The Trade
Somebody paid for the session
The business as dated record: consolidation, certification, collapse and revival, with every figure sourced and placed in time.
- EMI Is Broken Up and the Majors Become ThreeA half-century of British recorded music history changed hands in 2012, when regulatory approvals confirmed that the global major-label sector would contract from four companies to three
- Gold at Five Hundred Thousand, Platinum at a Million — and When Those Numbers ChangedRIAA certification thresholds have shifted four times since 1958; a gold record on a 1974 album and a gold record on a 2016 release are not the same claim
- The Catalogue Becomes the AssetHow streaming turned a label's back catalogue from afterthought to primary collateral
Four figures
67%Streaming’s share of global revenueIFPI Global Music Report 2023
−11%US revenue, 1978 to 1979RIAA shipment figures
ThreeMajors since 2012Universal, Sony, Warner
2022Vinyl passes the CDRIAA, first time since 1987