2015 YEAR-TO-DATE MARKETSHARE AT THE THREE-QUARTER POLE

With nine months in the books, the year-to-date marketshare scorecard closely resembles those from earlier this year, with Monte Lipman’s Republic and Rob Stringer’s Columbia slugging it out for bragging rights, while the rest of the field looks up at these two heavyweights. Based on what we know now, Columbia is lined up nicely to get the win, with potentially massive new albums from Adele and One Direction coming in November, while Beyoncé remains a possibility for Q4. Also in Columbia’s favor is the fact that the label now gets RED’s share, unlike a year ago, which accounts in part for the radical disparity between the 2014 and 2015 percentages in the charts below. Republic’s X factor is a possible new album from Drake following a pair of surprise releases, both of them smashes, while fellow superstar The Weeknd roars toward the finish line. There’s another close race for #3 in albums plus TEA between Steve Barnett’s CMG and John Janick’s IGA—it’s way too early to call a winner in the battle for bronze. Q4 officially begins next week, and if you think the competition is heated now, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.