Universal Leads Music Sales Up 6% to New High

U.S. music sales grew about 6% to a new high of 755 million units in 1999, fueled by teen pop stars such as the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, according to SoundScan figures released Wednesday.

Of the industry’s five top major music labels, Seagram Co.’s Universal Music led the market with 26.39% of total album sales, based on new product and older catalog items.

Sony Corp.’s Sony Music ranked second with 16.27%, followed by Bertelsmann’s BMG with 16.07%. Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Music ranked fourth with 15.77%, followed by EMI Group with 9.45%. Independent labels accounted for 16.05%.

Rankings based only on current products released within the last 15 months put Seagram’s Universal again in the lead with 26.85%, BMG second with 19.61%, and Sony third with 17.03%. Warner ranked fourth with 13.68% and EMI was fifth with 8.21%.

BMG distributed five of the year’s top 10 selling albums, including the biggest grossing album, “Millennium” by the Backstreet Boys, which sold 9.4 million units, and albums by teen singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. BMG also distributed Santana’s major comeback album “Supernatural,” and rappers TLC’s “Fanmail.”

Universal’s industry lead is solid, following 1998’s mega-merger between Seagram and PolyGram, and was boosted by the year’s big-selling rock album by Limp Bizkit and hit rap act Eminem.