YEAR-TO-DATE MARKETSHARE
The marketshare standings haven’t changed in the two and a half months since our first drill-down of 2019, and the numbers on Sir Lucian Grainge’s UMG, Rob Stringer’s Sony Music and the Max Lousada-led WMG have barely budged, but we have action aplenty at two of the Top 5 majors.
The biggest story concerns John Janick’s Interscope Geffen A&M, which is closing the gap with #1 Atlantic, picking up four-tenths of a percentage point since the end of February to rise to 9.8% in total-activity share, while Atlantic is flat at 10.5%. IGA makes an even bigger jump in audio streams, crossing into 10%+ territory. This power play is primarily attributable to Billie Eilish, whose album is at 931k, #2 in the standings; the #3 A Star Is Born soundtrack from Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (771k this year alone); and #9 Juice WRLD (543k), whose previous album is hanging around at #17 (407k). Add J. Cole (Roc Nation/Dreamville), with one of the year’s most steadily performing singles in #4 “Middle Child,” and you’re looking at a team with even more prolific scorers than the Golden State Warriors.
Monte Lipman’s Republic holds serve at #3 behind Ariana Grande, with 2019’s lone million-selling album (1.37m) and the most-streamed song; #6 Post Malone (603k this year), who also has the #3 and 4 streaming tracks; #8 Drake (566k this year); and the #12 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse ST (526k).
If you’re keeping score, IGA and Republic each have three albums in the Top 10 and eight apiece in the Top 50.
Steve Barnett’s Capitol Music Group maintains its #4 position, as Halsey scores the #6 song, “Without Me,” with her new single just out, followed by #11 Lil Baby & Gunna and #16 Marshmello & Bastille, while a pair of QC/Motown releases make the Top 30: #22 Lil Baby & Gunna (352k) and #30 Offset (297k).
The other Top 5 label to register an uptick is Columbia, which is starting to percolate less than 18 months into Ron Perry’s extreme makeover of the label’s A&R and marketing teams. The suddenly revitalized Big Red has ascended from 6.8 to 7.2% since late February, thanks largely to a pair of pop-cultural phenomena in Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road”—which has just become the year’s #1 single in total activity at 3.14m, with no signs of slowing down—and K-Pop trailblazers BTS (BigHit), whose latest album currently sits at #24, with 351k. Given the legerdemain Perry has demonstrated—notably including the inspired pairings of Halsey with BTS and both Billy Ray Cyrus and Diplo with Lil Nas X—we have no doubt that the hoodie-clad, colorfully shod CEO is just getting started.
