Private Black-owned company · Black-owned

EMPIRE

Founded and owned by Ghazi Shami; independent label and distributor

Stock value

Share price: Private — not listed
No stock value exists for a company without listed shares.
Revenue: Private — not filed

Company profile

Black ownership: 100%
Wholly owned by its founder; no outside label group holds equity · Billboard reporting on EMPIRE's independence
Active ventures: Recorded music, Distribution, Publishing
EMPIRE company site

Culture profile · Music + Audio

Black music sets the global rhythm of popular culture, and the catalogues, publishing rights and touring built on it are increasingly held as long term assets rather than one off paydays.

Market scale: $17.7B
RIAA 2024 · US recorded music, retail value · United States · source
Listening time to radio: 75%+
Share of Black audio listening time spent with radio, much of it independently owned. · NABOB / Nielsen 2025
Black buying power share: 9% of national
Black share of US buying power at the $1.6T estimate. · Nielsen, Diverse Voices 2020
Copyright Royalty Board mechanical rates: Rate reset litigated
Streaming mechanical royalty rates renegotiated, directly changing songwriter payouts. · Copyright Royalty Board 2022–2023
Music Modernization Act: Implementation continuing
Mechanical Licensing Collective distribution of unmatched royalties still being worked through. · US Copyright Office 2018–ongoing
Artist master ownership: Buy-backs normalising
Catalogue and master repurchase by artists, exemplified by the Death Row transaction. · Blackstone / industry reporting 2022