IT’S A HORSE RACE AS LABELS JOCKEY TO FINISH LINE

The record industry is offering its own dog fight for the marketshare lead as we head into the home stretch of 2002.

With Eminem’s 8 Mile and The Eminem Show leading the way, Chairman Jimmy Iovine’s IGA label (which includes DreamWorks) is currently #1 with a 9.7% marketshare as the current-album race enters its final Q4 leg.

That’s a healthy 1.5% ahead of Don Ienner’s Columbia (8.2%) and Lyor Cohen’s IDJ (8.1%), who are in a virtual dead head for the #2 spot.

Columbia is actually leading IDJ for second place in the overall category, which includes catalog, where the label also boasts an 8.2% share. With one year-to-date marketshare point currently equal to approximately 5.5 million albums, IGA is about 8.25 million units ahead of Columbia, with Nirvana, U2, Tupac (11/26) and half of Audioslave (11/19) joining Em to drive a strong finish.

Columbia’s upcoming releases include Nas (12/17), Barry Manilow Xmas album (11/12) and Crazy Town (11/12), while IDJ has half of what is expected to be a huge Shania Twain album (11/19), Ja Rule (11/19), an Ashanti remix album (11/26), Dru Hill (11/26), Sum 41 (11/26) Mariah Carey (12/3), DMX (12/17), Foxy Brown (12/17) and Redman (12/17)

Warner Bros. (6.2%) and Epic (6%) meanwhile, are jockeying for fourth place, with the Bunny leading Epic by a mere .2%. Epic’s year-end release sked includes Pearl Jam (11/12), half of Audioslave (11/19), Mudvayne (11/19), Charlotte Church’s greatest hits (11/26), Jennifer Lopez (11/26) and B2k (12/10). Warner Bros. will ride Faith Hill, the just-released Jaheim and Reprise acts Josh Groban, Disturbed and the new Eric Clapton into the new year. Keep an eye on this one because it could get verrrry interesting.