VIVA LA MARKETSHARE

Since we last looked at the year-to-date marketshare numbers, Universal Music Group has broken the 30% barrier, posting a new high of 30.7% through the third week in July. This brings the biggest of the Big Five within three points of owning one-third of the U.S. market.

Led by four of the Top Five best-selling albums of the year so far—Eminem’s The Eminem Show (Interscope), Now 9 (U.M.E), the left-field O Brother soundtrack (Lost Highway) and Ashanti’s eponymous debut (Murder Inc./Def Jam)—UMG outpaces second-place BMG by more than 13%. BMG has the #2 year-to-date album in Alan Jackson’s Drive (Arista Nashville).

Sony grabs the third label-group slot with a gain of eight-tenths since last time, squeaking by Warner Music Group by one tenth with 15.7%. EMI also posts a gain of five-tenths to 8.4%.

Label-wise, Interscope Geffen A&M tops Island Def Jam this time out, thanks to Eminem’s #1 YTD album, which has sold nearly twice as much this year (4.3 million) as #2 Drive. Second-place IDJ, meanwhile, bests #3 Columbia by 2.1 points, thanks to O Brother and Ashanti.

Columbia and Epic both remain strong, their biggest year-to-date sellers coming from Nas, System of a Down and John Mayer (Columbia) and Celine Dion, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez (Epic). Warner Bros. rounds out the label Top Five, thanks to eclectic successes by Linkin Park, Josh Groban and Enya.

LABEL GROUPS
UMG 30.7%
BMG 17.1%
SONY 15.7%
WMG 15.6%
EMI 8.4%

TOP 10 Labels
1. IGA 9.4%
2. IDJ 9.0%
3. Columbia 6.9%
4. Epic 6.7%
5. Warner Bros. 6.0%
6. Universal 4.6%
7. Arista 4.3%
8. Atlantic 3.7%
9. RCA Nashville 2.9%
10. Virgin 2.4%