Music business

The modern Western music industry emerged between the 1930s and 1950s, when records replaced sheet music as the most important product in the music business. In the commercial world, "the recording industry"—a reference to recording performances of songs and pieces and selling the recordings–began to be used as a loose synonym for "the music industry". By the 2020s, a majority of the music market is controlled by four major corporate labels: the French-owned Universal Music Group, the Japanese-owned Sony Music Group, the American-owned Warner Music Group, and the German-owned BMG Rights Management. Labels outside of these three major labels are referred to as independent labels (or "indies"), such as Allied Artists Music Group, Reservoir Media, Secretly Group, Big Machine Label Group, PIAS Group, Beggars Group, Sub Pop, Domino Recording Company, Glassnote Records, Ninja Tune, Empire Distribution, & ECR Music Group. The largest portion of the live music market for concerts and tours is controlled by Live Nation, the largest promoter and music venue owner. Live Nation is a former subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc, which is the largest owner of radio stations in the United States.