The major labels face a battle for streaming market share. Here's how they might fight back.

<p>Welcome to the latest episode of Music Business Worldwide&apos;s Talking Trends, supported by <a href='https://www.volymusic.com/'>Voly Music</a>.<br/><br/>In this episode, MBW founder Tim Ingham discusses the market share threat that the major record companies currently face on Spotify from DIY distribution platforms – and the millions of independent artists they service.<br/><br/>As music from these independent artists swamps streaming services, the majors&apos; refusal to allow the music they distribute to fall under a certain perceived quality threshold limits their ability to compete on volume / scale with the likes of DistroKid. (A prime example of this refusal: Universal Music Group&apos;s Spinnup <a href='https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/universal-dumps-diy-distribution-as-spinnup-goes-invite-only/'>shutting down DIY distribution</a> last month; it now only distributes music from invited artists.)<br/><br/>As a result (amongst other factors), the majors&apos; cumulative market share on Spotify is statistically falling – down by a full 10% from 2017 (87%) to 2021 (77%).<br/><br/>We hear from Rob Stringer, Chairman of Sony Music Group, who last week told investors that Sony has widened its own distribution net – via The Orchard and AWAL – to work with more independent acts, and counteract the market-share erosion created by DIY distribution.<br/><br/>However, Stringer noted that a proportion of this DIY-distributed music isn&apos;t of a good enough quality to be considered anything more than &quot;flotsam and jetsam&quot;.<br/><br/>Ingham theorises that the majors may soon pressure Spotify to pay out higher royalties for &apos;quality&apos; or &apos;premium&apos; artists – especially those who attract subscribers to its service – versus the tens of thousands of tracks uploaded to streaming services daily.<br/><br/>Ingham wonders aloud if the majors&apos; business model &quot;c<em>an only triumph long term if streaming companies start acknowledging that &apos;quality&apos; music is deserving of a hi