THIRD DOWN, TWO TO GO, PART I: UMG RULES

The first four months in the 2006 record-selling season are in the books, and it ain’t especially pretty. Sales are off more than 2% from last year, which wasn’t so hot to begin with. But there were some winners along the way, and it’ll be hard to dramatically change the position of these front-runners at this point in the game by the end of 2006. See the full chart here.

For the first third of the year, Universal Music Group is once again way out in front in total sales (31.8%), just about the same as last year at this point. The numbers are a credit to savvy industry vet Doug Morris, who continues to gather the best executive and artist talent with an aggressive approach to marketing and promotion, led by creative label rulers such as Jimmy Iovine and Antonio “L.A.” Reid.

Total Marketshare YTD '06 YTD '05 Final '05
UMG 31.8% same 31.8%
SBMG 23.9% (-1.9%) 25.7%
WMG 14.9% +0.1% 14.9%
EMI 9.5% +.02% 9.6%

UMG is followed by Sony BMG, down nearly two points total (23.9%), with plenty of tumultuous times as the two disparate corporate cultures attempt to unify under newly named ruler Rolf Schmidt-Holtz.

Warner Music Group is third, up slightly from last year’s four-month tally in total maretshare (14.9%), as rumors continue to swirl about the ultimate fate of the house Edgar Bronfman Jr. bought, pillaged and now apparently has on the block.

EMI trails, though it’s incrementally up from last year at this time (9.5%), as chiefs Eric Nicoli and Alain Levy seek to bolster its market share by acquiring WMG.

Combine WMG and EMI and you get a 24.4% total-release percentage, just ahead of SBMG’s 23.9%.

Indies represent 20% of the total-release marketshare, a rise of 1.6% over 2005 year-to date.