Peterson and Berger revisited: changing market dominance in the British popular music industry, c.1950-80

Gourvish, Terry and Tennent, Kevin (2010). Peterson and Berger revisited: changing market dominance in the British popular music industry, c.1950-80. Business History, 52(2) pp. 187–206.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791003610717

Abstract

In studies of the popular music industry, there has been much interest in the market share of the leading firms (majors), and the apparent connections between a high level of concentration and musical innovation and diversity. Peterson and Berger argued that in the United States the majors lost market share to independent companies in 1955-62, then recovered their position to 1973. This article uses a newly-constructed database and concentration measures to test the proposition in relation to Britain for 1952-75. We find that British majors also lost market share, but the process started much later, and was not followed by a recovery. Instead, American majors entered the market directly from the late 1960s.

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