Sony Music Publishing swept Advertising signPublishers Quarterly's rankings for the first three months of 2024 — the fifth consecutive quarter on the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs charts.
Sony also had a track of the song that ruled both charts – Jack Harlow's “Lovin on Me”. The other top 10 publishers with a stake in the song: Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), Warner Chappell Music and Kobalt.
The top songwriter of the first quarter on the Hot 100 Songs chart was Noah Kahan. It reached the top due to two songs, including the No. 10 track on the chart, “Stick Season.” Not surprisingly, on Top Radio Airplay, Taylor Swift was the No. 1 songwriter thanks to the success of three songs on the list, including “Is It Over Now (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)” at No. 5.
Back at Sony, the publisher ended the quarter with a 29.19% market share on share strength across 66 songs — an improvement over the 64 songs and 27.69% the company claimed in the previous quarter. For the first quarter's Hot 100 Songs chart, Sony ended up with a 28.60% share with 58 songs — again, an improvement over the previous quarter's 27.14% share, but one song less than the 59 tracks that collected in this quarter.
Sony's appearance marks the 12th consecutive quarter that it has taken the top spot among the top Radio Airplay publishers. Remarkably, it has held the top spot for 25 of the last 26 quarters. On the Hot 100 Songs chart, Sony took No. 1 for the fifth quarter in a row.
Meanwhile, Warner Chappell Music continued its rise, finishing in second place for the second consecutive quarter in both publisher rankings. The publisher increased its quarter-over-quarter market share in both rankings — from 19.12% to 21.93% on Top Radio Airplay and from 20.65% to 22.05% on Hot 100 Songs. Warner Chappell's Top Radio Airplay song count also increased from 54 to 63 quarter-over-quarter, and its Hot 100 song count increased from 44 to 58. It was also No. 1 on the Publishers Country Airplay chart.
UMPG came in third on both charts, posting a stronger showing on the Hot 100 Songs chart, with a 17.42% share and 43 songs. This is up from the previous quarter's 15.78% and 41 songs. His top track on both charts was Harlow's “Lovin on Me.” On Top Radio Airplay, UMPG posted a 14.65% share with a share of 44 songs, down from the previous quarter's 18.47% and 48 songs.
Kobalt and BMG, respectively, came in at No. 4 and No. 5, their usual positions in both publisher rankings. Kobalt upped its game in the Top Radio Airplay category, garnering a 9.65% market share with shares on 31 songs — an improvement over Q4, when it had an 8.81% share and 30 songs. Kobalt fared even better on the Hot 100 Songs chart with a 10.19% market share, but that was still down from the 10.83% share it had in Q4 2023.
BMG's market share declined in both charts. Top Radio Airplay's share fell from 6.77% to 5.86% quarter-over-quarter and from 5.95% to 5.47% on the Hot 100 Songs, while its number of songs fell from 18 to 14 and from 16 to 14, respectively. His top song on both charts was “Paint The Town Red” by Doja Cat, which charted at No. 7 on the Top Radio Airplay chart and No. 12 on the Hot 100 chart.
Publishers ranked sixth through ninth on Top Radio Airplay were Concord, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Tracy Chapman's Purple Rabbit Music and Pulse in that order. Concord held steady at No. 6 for the second quarter in a row, though it fell slightly from 3.71% in the fourth quarter to 3.38%. Its number of songs also dropped from 14 to 10. On the other hand, Hipgnosis rose from No. 9 last quarter to No. 7, increasing its market share from 1.48% to 2.29%, despite that the position of her songs on the chart remained the same — six — in both quarters. The power of Luke Combs' “Fast Car” cover finally appears to be waning as the Purple Rabbit's market share fell from 2.07% to 1.67%, despite holding its No. 8 spot for a second quarter. Pulse traded places with Hipgnosis, falling from No. 7 in the fourth quarter with a 2.66% share to No. 9 in the first with 1.52%.
In the Hot 100 publisher rankings, Purple Rabbit fared better, climbing from No. 7 to No. 6 quarter-on-quarter thanks to a slight increase in market share from 1.99% to 2.06%. Similarly, Pulse rose from No. 10 to No. 8 in the same period, with its market share increasing from 1.31% to 1.96%. And Hipgnosis returned to the Hot 100 chart after being absent since the fourth quarter of 2022. Its 1.59% share landed it in ninth place. Big Machine took the top 10 spot on Top Radio Airplay, returning to that ranking for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2022. And Empire Publishing debuted on the Billboard Publishers Quarterly at No. 10 on the Hot 100, with a share of 0.97%, based on the strength of three song placements: Justin Timberlake's “Selfish,” 310babii's “Soak City (Do It),” and Morgan Wallen's “Spin You Around.”
Last quarter: Taylor Swift and Doja Cat score top songs
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/music-publishers-quarterly-rankings-sony-sweep-warner-taylor-swift/
