YTD MARKET SHARE

While the market-share gods still haven’t officially decided how to deal with the ramifications of UMG’s bicoastal reorganization three full months after the moves were made, here’s the view of the new world order from where we sit as the unofficial purveyors of our own prime-aged bullshit.

Between them, the two new superpowers —Monte and Avery Lipman’s REPUBLIC CORPS (all caps, please) and John Janick’s Interscope Capitol Labels Group—have sliced themselves a hefty 27.3% piece of the overall U.S. market and 29.1% of current. REPUBLIC CORPS, which is #1 in current, keeps knocking it out of the park as its murderers’ row of all-stars scores 21 of the Top 50 albums YTD, nine of them from Taylor Swift, the Aaron Judge of Monte’s batting order. ICLG, which is #1 overall, boasts a lineup that even Shohei Ohtani would envy, with Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem (who has a new album on deck), KAROL G and J Balvin the meat of the lineup for the middle third of the season.

Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson’s suddenly reawakened Warner racks up the third-biggest current share, behind only the bicoastal behemoths, as it continues to outpace Atlantic by a wide margin for the first time since the ’90s. The Bunny has seven of the Top 50 albums, along with the Top 3 songs, from Zach Bryan, Benson Boone and Teddy Swims.

Peter Edge’s RCA is #5 in current, notching Top 50 singles from Flo Milli, Tate McRae, TDE’s SZA (with three entries), Bryson Tiller and Doja Cat (with two). And Sylvia Rhone’s Epic is off to its best start in ages, thanks to its scoreboard-lighting Big 3 of Travis Scott, 21 Savage and Future, who has a pair of Top 50 albums with Metro Boomin from Boominati/Republic (we didn’t forget; it’s upper and lower case for the label).

Nope, that’s not a mariachi band coming toward your table at Lucy’s El Adobe, it’s the entirety of the frontline music business, which is scrambling to pick the finest produce from a vast, bountiful orchard (no pun intended) of Spanish-language content for domestic consumption, and Americans from all ethnic groups are gobbling it up. Sony has cornered 41.7% of the Latin overall market, paced by Orchard-distribbed Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma, with Afo Verde’s Sony Latin contributing 10%. Jesús López’s UMLE, at 21.4% overall, has the lion’s share of UMG’s 35%, while Alejandro Duque’s Warner Latina makes up the bulk of WMG’s 8.9. ICLG’s Latin share continues to grow —it’s now up to 12.9% in current—and it’s sure to rise higher with J Balvin’s move to Nir Seroussi’s rapidly growing roster.

Cindy Mabe’s UMG Nashville is the top label in overall country share, while Luke Combs is in the “Fast” lane at Randy Goodman’s Sony Music Nashville, but the coastal elite (we kid because we love) are now line-dancing like extras in a remake of Urban Cowboy. Republic’s current country share of 15%, driven by Big Loud/Mercury/Republic’s Morgan Wallen, is going to further increase with the upcoming Post Malone country album and a Jelly Roll LP on Broken Bow/Republic. Columbia has a 7% share in current behind Beyoncé and burgeoning megastar Megan Moroney, the latter in a 50/50 deal with SMN. Warner’s country share has been driven by the enormous success of West Coast-signed, Oklahoma-based powerhouse Zach Bryan.

The market-share gods may be moving at a snail’s pace, but it’s full speed ahead for the Beast of the East and Westworld, which are fast-tracking the integration of their various new assets into their respective motherships, whereupon they’ll derive the full benefit of the parent companies’ enhanced marketing and promotion muscle—which is precisely why Sir Lucian Grainge made these moves. When that job is done, the chasm between the haves and the have nots will be as wide as it’s ever been, if not wider. But all’s fair in love and war… and whatever this is.