YTD MARKETSHARE:
FIRST 10 WEEKS

Coming off its record-setting 2020 run, John Janick’s Interscope Geffen A&M retains its momentum in the overall-marketshare competition at the 10-week mark of 2021, topping #2 Atlantic by a full percentage point. Alamo/Geffen’s Lil Durk, at #2, is the biggest of IGA’s 11 Top 50 albums, the late Juice WRLD (Grade A) has two in the Top 20 and Machine Gun Kelly (Bad Boy) is a breakout star at #19, while rookie MVP contender Olivia Rodrigo (Geffen) has the #1 single YTD.

Monte Lipman’s Republic is lighting up the scoreboard as well, with a dozen Top 50 album entries. Leading the charge is runaway #1 Morgan Wallen (Big Loud), and five of the Top 6—the late Pop Smoke (Victor Victor) in a virtual tie with Durk for #2, followed by Taylor Swift, XO’s The Weeknd and Ariana Grande—as the label’s hot start has closed the gap with Atlantic to half a point.

The top three labels are in a rarefied tier by themselves, with CMG the only other company to top 7%, as Jeff Vaughn settles into his leadership role alongside Michelle Jubelirer, Ethiopia Habtemariam rises to Chairman/CEO of Motown, QC’s Lil Baby continues his roll and the post-Barnett era begins to come into focus.

Moving to the 6% tier, Ron Perry continues to demonstrate his A&R chops, as new-look Columbia breaks one newcomer after another, with 24kGoldn (RECORDS), The Kid LAROI and Lil Tjay joining superstars Harry Styles, BTS (Big Hit) and Polo G in the Big Red offensive. Warner’s Bay-Schuck- Corson tandem has some next-gen juice of its own in CJ (CJ Music), Yung Bleu (OVO), Saweetie (Icy) and Warner Nashville’s Gabby Barrett, as well as newly minted superstar Dua Lipa, while Fleetwood Mac is the gift that keeps on giving.

Peter Edge and his revamped executive team, led by new Prexy Mark Pitts, are now kissing-close to 5%, with a pair of envelope-pushing youngsters—TDE’s SZA, who has the #2 single, and #6 Doja Cat (Kemosabe)—leading Nipper’s embrace of the new.

As Wallen’s massive success dramatically demonstrates, country fans are now embracing streaming, and the Nashville labels are aggressively battling for ears. Luke Combs (River House), with nearly 120m combined streams on his two Top 50 songs—making him the second-biggest country act on the DSPs behind Wallen— as well as the #8 and #30 albums YTD, leads the way for Randy Goodman’s Sony Music Nashville. Chris Stapleton is the pacesetter for Mike Dungan’s UMG Nashville, which is locked in a tight battle with Sony for bragging rights in Music City.

In current marketshare—meaning marketshare minus catalog, which accounted for 70% of the overall number in 2020— Republic’s stunning 12% slice of the pie and IGA’s hefty 11.1 are indicative of the two labels’ torrid hot streaks. How hot? Rodrigo has 100m+ more streams than the #2 song YTD, and Wallen has sold more albums than #2 and #3 combined. ■