Profit Margin
-1.9%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 5122
NAICS 5122 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Sound Recording Industries - Industry Benchmarks
$127,509/yr average annual pay, with 280 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5122.
- -1.9%
- Net margin
- 26K
- Workers employed
- $127,509/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $99M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5122
Sound Recording Industries runs a -1.9% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 5K establishments employing 26K workers.
- -1.9%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 26K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $127,509/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $99M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Sound Recording Industries
Sound Recording Industries sits inside Information at a -1.9% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $9.1B in aggregate receipts across 5,862 returns, averaging $1.6B per establishment.
4,585 establishments employ 26,014 workers (5.7/location) at $127,509/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Tennessee.
Total Receipts
$9.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-176500000
Pre-tax net income
Employment
26,014
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$127,509/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,585
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
establishment count increased by 127. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Sound Recording Industries revenue goes
Workforce scale
Sound Recording Industries margin vs national reference points
Sound Recording Industries net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
5,862 returns 100%
Margin: -1.9% · Receipts: $9.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 5,862
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $1.6B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $3.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 5.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Music Publishers NAICS 51223 | N/A |
| Other Sound Recording Industries NAICS 51229 | N/A |
| Record Production and Distribution NAICS 51225 | N/A |
| Sound Recording Studios NAICS 51224 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 9,233 |
| New York | 5,971 |
| Tennessee | 2,966 |
| Illinois | 813 |
| Colorado | 524 |
| Georgia | 504 |
| Washington | 364 |
| Pennsylvania | 332 |
| Massachusetts | 183 |
| Oregon | 136 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
280
Total Loan Volume
$99M
Avg Loan Size
$354K
Jobs Supported
1,177
Program Breakdown
7(a) 252 (90%)
504 28 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
32 loans in this industry
New Business Share
22.1% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 21
2021 43
2022 38
2023 59
2024 52
2025 57
2026 10
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Sound Recording Industries?
$9.1B in total annual receipts across all Sound Recording Industries businesses. Average per business: $1.6B.
How profitable is Sound Recording Industries?
-1.9% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Sound Recording Industries?
4,585 business establishments. Together they employ 26,014 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Sound Recording Industries?
$127,509/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 5.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Sound Recording Industries employment?
California leads with 9,233 workers. New York (5,971) and Tennessee (2,966) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Sound Recording Industries receive?
Sound Recording Industries businesses received 280 SBA loans totaling $99 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $354K. These loans supported 1,177 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Sound Recording Industries reports a higher net margin than 2% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 11% of that same 259-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Sound Recording Industries
- Net margin: -1.9% vs sector. Browse Information
- 4,585 establishments, 26,014 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 280 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 5122 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.