Employment
6,596
Total employees (Census CBP)
Information ·NAICS 512240
NAICS 512240 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Sound Recording Studios - Industry Benchmarks
$72,880/yr average annual pay, with 149 SBA loans on record for NAICS 512240.
- 9.1%
- Information sector margin
- 7K
- Workers employed
- $72,880/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $68M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 512240
New York leads Sound Recording Studios activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Information sector runs a 9.1% net margin.
- 9.1%
- Information sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 7K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $72,880/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $68M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Sound Recording Studios
Sound Recording Studios sits inside Information, a sector that runs a 9.1% net margin overall.
2,131 establishments employ 6,596 workers (3.1/location) at $72,880/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by Georgia and Tennessee.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$72,880/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,131
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 275; establishment count increased by 14. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $480.7M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 3.1
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 886 |
| Georgia | 236 |
| Tennessee | 233 |
| Pennsylvania | 156 |
| New Jersey | 145 |
| Colorado | 111 |
| Michigan | 91 |
| Maryland | 83 |
| Hawaii | 8 |
| Idaho | 8 |
Showing top 10 of 46 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
149
Total Loan Volume
$68M
Avg Loan Size
$456K
Jobs Supported
783
Program Breakdown
7(a) 128 (86%)
504 21 (14%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
13 loans in this industry
New Business Share
20.1% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 15
2021 26
2022 21
2023 35
2024 26
2025 23
2026 3
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Sound Recording Studios?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 512240 level. New York leads this industry nationally. The broader Information sector runs a 9.1% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Sound Recording Studios?
2,131 business establishments. Together they employ 6,596 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Sound Recording Studios?
$72,880/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 3.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Sound Recording Studios employment?
New York leads with 886 workers. Georgia (236) and Tennessee (233) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Sound Recording Studios receive?
Sound Recording Studios businesses received 149 SBA loans totaling $68 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $456K. These loans supported 783 jobs at origination. Most lending (86%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 9% of that same 801-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Tire Retreading 6,615
- Deep Sea Freight Transportation 6,574
- Industrial Sand Mining 6,668
Benchmarking Sound Recording Studios
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Information
- 2,131 establishments, 6,596 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 149 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 512240 · 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.