Q3 AND GOAL TO GO

At the three-quarter mark, Sony Music and Universal Music remain atop the overall marketshare, the former leading by 1.1 percentage points in albums sold, the latter by 1 percentage point in track-equivalent albums (or TEA, with 10 tracks equaling one album). For the full chart, click here.

Lucian Grainge’s post-EMI UMG should push up their marketshare past Sony, though it certainly won’t be close to EMI’s 10%, seeing that they must divest several properties, most notably Parlophone. That will leave Warner Music Group a distant third, with a shot at picking up a few points if Blavatnik and Cooper decide to make a play for the latter.

On the label front, Rob Stringer and Steve Barnett’s Columbia has notched a historic 11.0% marketshare, up 1.8 percentage points from last year, and they did it all with homegrown acts, rather than acquisitions, including the #1 and #2 albums of the year to date in XL’s Adele (4 million, 9.8m overall) and Syco’s One Direction (1.2 million)

If not for Columbia, all eyes would be on Monte Lipman’s Republic, with an impressive 7.5% marketshare, sporting two of the Top 10 albums in Nicki Minaj (#9) and Gotye (#10).

Other big gainers include Peter Edge and Tom Corson’s RCA Records, with Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits at #5, which is up 1.4 percentage points to 5.1%.

Steve Bartels’ Island Def Jam earned a 5.0%, with #4 Justin Bieber leading the way, giving Republic/Island chief Barry Weiss a nifty 12.5% overall as head of both labels. In the Country area, Gary O’s SME Nashville scores a 3.0%, with Carrie Underwood at #6 leading the way, ahead of both Capitol Nashville (2.7%, with #7 Luke Bryan) and Mike Dungan’s UMG Nashville (2.0%, up .8, thanks to #3 Lionel Richie).