Music industry delays release of market share data

LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) The music industry has delayed disclosing its global market share figures because of squabbles over methodology, and amid growing concerns that the sector is controlled by too few companies.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the music sector's global trade group, released its annual compendium of 2005 industry data on Thursday with the market share figures omitted.

The four major music companies -- Vivendi's Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music -- account for about three of every four albums sold in the world.

The IFPI said its members were still tussling over how to account for digital sales, and that the figures would be released later in the year. By that time the information will be nearly a year out of date.

''They're basically recalculating the way they do it because of the rise of digital,'' IFPI spokesman Alex Jacob said.

The group's ''2006 Global Recording Industry in Numbers'' reports total music sales, which were announced earlier, and includes tallies from individual countries, as well as the volume of digital sales.

One of the problems compiling the information has been a lack of uniformity in gathering data from the mobile operators, which are an increasingly important source of sales, industry executives said.

The music industry was shaken up last month when a European court annulled the 2004 approval of the merger of Sony Music and BMG, which created Sony BMG, saying the European Commission had not properly scrutinised the possible effects of consolidation.

That ruling also forced EMI and Warner Music, the world's third and fourth largest music companies, respectively, to sever their ongoing merger talks, at least until the regulatory picture becomes clearer.

According to the IFPI's 2004 data, the latest year for which information is available, Universal's global share was 25.5 percent, Sony BMG 21.5 percent, EMI 13.4 percent, Warner 11.3 percent and the independent labels collectively at 28.4 percent.

The indie sales include Sony Music in Japan, a unit that was excluded from the Sony BMG deal.

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