EMI has been named the Number One record label of 2024.
The Universal Music UK label topped the market share rankings with a 10.5 per cent share of combined consumption, according to data from the Official Charts Company (via Music Week).
It was also the corporate group market leader with a year-on-year consumption growth of 10 per cent and a market share of 36.2 per cent. Sony Music and Warner Music followed in second and third place respectively.
2024 was the third consecutive year that EMI Records had come out on top thanks to sales such as Taylor Swift‘s ‘The Tortured Poets Department‘, which shifted 254,241 copies in the first six months of 2024 and ended the year on 783,820 units, making it their biggest seller.
RCA came in second for combined consumption in 2024 with a 10 per cent share and it was the market leader based on track streams with a 10.8 per cent share.
The label enjoyed domestic breakthrough success with BRIT Rising Star winner Myles Smith, whose single ‘Stargazing’ clocked up 1,012,699 sales and was as the 12th biggest track of 2024. Beyoncé‘s album ‘Cowboy Carter‘ also shifted 137,499 units while single ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ clocked up 959,373 units.
Polydor was third on combined consumption with a 9.9 per cent share thanks to the likes of Sabrina Carpenter‘s ‘Short n’ Sweet‘ which totalled 372,956 units. Her three chart-topping singles – ‘Espresso’, ‘Please Please Please’ and ‘Taste – were among the biggest of the year with huge numbers.
Island Records also had a good year thanks to releases from Noah Kahan, Hozier and Chappell Roan as did Parlophone, with Coldplay‘s ‘Moon Music‘ and Warner Records due to Dua Lipa‘s third album ‘Radical Optimism‘.
Warner Music’s Atlantic label enjoyed success too following the success of Charli XCX‘s ‘Brat‘ album, which became a cultural phenomenon.
It comes after the consumption of UK-recorded music saw a substantial increase in 2024, according to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), earlier this week. Part of the success of UK music was attributed to an unrivalled rise and support for women in the industry, led by the likes of Charli XCX among others.
For the first time since 1994, sales of physical albums sales saw a year-on-year increase by 1.4 per cent, marking the 17th consecutive rise in vinyl purchases – this was forecast last July, when it was reported that sales would see an increase for the first time in 20 years.
This takes the vinyl market to a three-decade high, with sales up 9.1 per cent to 6.7million units. However, the sale of physical CDs have continually declined 2.9 per cent, though this is offset by vinyl’s increase.
While classic releases remain a fixture in the revival of vinyl culture, eight of 2024’s Top 10 vinyl record sales are new releases from the likes of Taylor Swift, Fontaines D.C., Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Coldplay, The Cure and more.
‘Brat’ was also named as the Album of the Year by NME. “‘Brat’ as cultural sensation was a sight to behold, to be sure. But ‘Brat’ as an album – the record at the core of the rollout, the music beneath the marketing – is quite simply exceptional,” NME noted.
