Avex has landed another No. 1 spot on the charts, but this time it's for the record label itself.
Oricon Inc., the company behind the domestic music industry's ranking charts, announced its annual market report for 2014 last week, with Avex Group Holdings Inc. topping the list for market share for the third consecutive year.
Avex's sales were pegged at ¥49.19 billion, which translates to a market share of 17.1 percent.
The top three remained the same as the previous year's list, with Sony Music Entertainment (13.9 percent market share) and Universal Music (12.2 percent) coming in second and third place respectively.
According to website Oricon Style, J Storm — the record label behind the country's top-selling boy band Arashi — jumped from sixth to fourth position, with sales figures 1.5 times higher than in 2013.
The rise was largely due to the label's acquisition of another act from multimedia talent agency, Johnny & Associates — seven-member boy band Kanjani8.
Elsewhere, Lantis — a label with ties to anime and video game music — improved its ranking, going from the 14th to ninth spot, thanks to positive sales of its "Love Live! School Idol Project" audio series.
