WITH 2012 ONE-THIRD OVER,
TWO STAY HOT

The race between Doug Morris’ Sony Music and ex-colleague Lucian Grainge’s UMG got even tighter at the one-third mark. With four months down and eight to go, Sony leads UMG by less than a percentage point (30.4 to 29.5) in total album marketshare.

The results are reversed in the all-important TEA, which measures both album and singles shares (with 10 tracks equaling a single album), with UMG leading SME by 1.4 percentage points (30.4 to 29). Add UMG and EMI’s total together and you get 39.4% (39.5% for TEA).

In new releases, Team Stringer/Barnett’s Columbia juggernaut, thanks in large part to Adele, who accounts for two albums in the Top 10, takes 13.2% of marketshare, up 5.6 percentage points over 2011. The duo also placed Syco/Columbia’s One Direction at #5.

That was enough to turn back Monte Lipman’s Universal Republic, at 9.5%, a full three percentage points over the same time last year, thanks in large part to Young Money/Cash Money entries Drake (#6) and Nicki Minaj (#9).

American Idol celeb Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope/Geffen/ A&M is third with 6.3%, a rise of a single percentage point over the previous year, with Madonna’s MDNA leading the way at #7 in the Top 10. Atlantic finishes #4 with 5.7%, down 1.1 percentage points from 2011.

Peter Edge and Tom Corson’s RCA Records is next with 4.3%, down .8 percentage points from the same period last year, with the late Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits at #2, totaling 777k in sales for a cume of 2.4 million.

Capitol Music Group sports a 3.4%, in large part thanks to Now 41 at #4, Steve Bartels’ IDJ a 3.2% and Warner Bros. a 3%.

Gary O’s SME Nashville is steady at 2.5%, while UMG Nashville is up 1.1 percentage points to 2.3, with much of the credit going to Lionel Richie’s Country duets release, Tuskegee, the largest-selling album to come out this year.

For the full chart, click here.