TALE OF THE TAPE

Nudged along by their historic pairing with EMI, Lucian Grainge’s Universal Music Group nudged ex-colleague Doug Morris’ Sony Music for the lead in overall marketshare and TEA. Both music groups improved from the year before, with UMG at 31.1, up 1.5 percentage points and SME at 30.4, up 1 percentage point. The two were less than a percentage point apart in new release marketshare and less than 1.5 percentage points in TEA. That left Warner Music Group in third place, at about half of the other two (15.1).

For the full marketshare chart, click here.

Rob Stringer’s Columbia is the big winner, sporting a whopping 10.3% new release marketshare, as the year’s #1 album, Adele’s 21, led the way with 4.2 million sold in 2012, for a total of 10 million. Columbia also had the year’s #3 album in Syco U.K. teen phenoms One Direction, with 1.4 million in sales.

Storming into second place was Monte Lipman’s Republic, with an impressive 8.5%, leading everyone else with a 1.1 percentage point rise over 2011, sporting Top 20 albums in Nicki Minaj (#16), Gotye (#17) and Drake (#18).

Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope Geffen A&M was up next with 6.0% of new releases, sporting the #10 album in Maroon 5. Peter Edge and Tom Corson’s RCA Records, with Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits at #9, scored a 5.4%, tying them with Atlantic.

Steve Bartels’ Island Def Jam earned 4.9%, with #5 Justin Bieber helping give Republic/Island chief Barry Weiss a nifty 13.4% overall as head of both labels. In the Country area, Gary O’s SME Nashville scores a 2.7% (with Carrie Underwood at #7 its top seller), ahead of Capitol Nashville, at 2.0% (with #8 Luke Bryan), now part of Mike Dungan’s UMG Nashville (1.8%, up .6, thanks to #6 Lionel Richie). Finally, L.A. Reid’s Epic sported a .4 rise to 1.6%.