Spotify passes UMG as the world’s most valuable music company

Spotify is more valuable than UMG. The streamer overtook Universal Music Group to become the biggest company in the music industry based on its market capitalization in Q2 2024.

According to Omdia’s Music Industry Sharewatch, 2Q24, Spotify’s market cap is $62.5B compared with UMG‘s $53.7B. Spotify’s market cap increased 18.2% from $52.8bn at the end of the first quarter, while UMG’s edged down 1.5% from $54.5bn.

“Spotify’s impressive second quarter performance is a continuation of its success from the first quarter of this year,” said Simon Dyson, Senior Principal Analyst at Omdia. “The share price has risen almost 70% so far this year and has doubled since last October,” Dyson added.

China’s Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) ranks third after its market cap surged 26.3% to $24.1B from $19.1N.

Spotify’s share of the combined market cap of the 28 publicly listed music companies tracked by Omdia rose to 28.7% from 24.9%. UMG’s share decreased to 24.7% from 25.7%, while TME’s share was up to 11.1% from 9%.

The combined market cap of the 28 companies Q2 2024 at $217.5B compared with $212.4B at the start of April and $194.2bn at the beginning of the year. US-listed companies accounted for 63.3% of the combined end-June market cap total, with Netherlands-listed companies generating 24.7%, and South Korean companies 4.3%.

The market share for streaming services is 41.2%, with record companies/music publishers accounting for 38.8%.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.