Publishers Quarterly: Sony ‘Levitating’ Atop Rankings, Silk Sonic Makes Smooth Entry
Sony Music Publishing regained control over both publishers rankings for the period from April 1 to June 30, after slipping to No. 2 last quarter on Top Radio Airplay.
Sony Music Publishing regained control over both publishers rankings for the period from April 1 to June 30, after slipping to No. 2 last quarter on Top Radio Airplay. The company won especially big on Hot 100 Songs, where it scored a 32.58% market share — the highest of any publisher since Billboard began tracking the song chart in 2019.
The lead single of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak’s Silk Sonic collaboration, “Leave the Door Open” — co-written by both artists along with Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II and Christopher “Chris” Brody Brown — led both song charts, and Warner Chappell Music and BMG claimed shares in the tune. Olivia Rodrigo and her collaborator on her debut album, SOUR, Daniel “Dan” Leonard Nigro — both of whom are represented by Sony — tied atop the Top Radio Airplay’s songwriters tally, and also came in at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Hot 100 Songs.
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Sony has now led Hot 100 Songs for eight quarters out of the chart’s 10-quarter history, this time edging out No. 2 publisher Universal Music Publishing Group by more than 14 percentage points. It ranked 60 songs (up from 59 and a 23.56% market share), including Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” featuring DaBaby (No. 2). On Top Radio Airplay, it had 56 songs with a 23.48% market share (up from 55 songs and 22.59%), including Justin Bieber’s “Peaches” featuring Daniel Caesar and Giveon (No. 2).
This is the first time that any publisher has crossed the 30% market share threshold on either ranking since 2014, when the then-Sony/ATV did it as a minority owner and administrator for EMI Music Publishing — which it now wholly owns.
As UMPG fell from No. 1 to No. 2 on Top Radio Airplay, its market share dropped to 21.05% with 49 songs (from 22.59% and 55), including “Peaches.” On Hot 100 Songs, it maintained its No. 2 position, landing 47 songs for an 18.02% market share (down from 58 and 22.64%), including “Levitating.”
Warner Chappell Music took the No. 3 position on both charts, after 11 quarters at No. 4 on the Top Radio publisher ranking and four quarters on the Hot 100 ranking, all behind Kobalt. On Top Radio Airplay, Warner Chappell scored a 17.44% market share with 48 songs (from 16.05% and 55 songs); on Hot 100 Songs, it nabbed a 16.95% market share with 47 songs (from 16.97% and 53 songs). The publisher was also tops among the top 100 Country Airplay songs for an 18th consecutive quarter, with a 26.6% share.
Falling to No. 4 on both rankings, Kobalt dropped to a 14.71% market share on Top Radio Airplay with 34 songs (from 18.26% and 48 songs), including “Peaches.” On Hot 100 Songs, it slid to a 12.82% market share despite increasing its number of songs to 47 (from 16.99% and 42 songs), including “Levitating.”
BMG grew its market share on Top Radio Airplay to 9.41% with 24 songs (from 7.74% and 25 songs) and on Hot 100 Songs to 7.4% with 21 (from 6.48% and 21 songs).
On Top Radio Airplay, Round Hill Music came in sixth again, with a 1.85% market share and nine songs (from 2.41% and eight songs), including Dierks Bentley’s “Gone” (No. 30); Big Machine Music rose from ninth to seventh, with 1.3% market share and five songs (up from 1.11% and four songs), including Luke Combs’ “Forever After All” (No. 24); Hipgnosis Songs Group (formerly Big Deal/Words & Music) returned to the top 10 rankings to place eighth, with 1.25% market share and four songs, including Olivia Rodrigo’s “déjà vu” (No. 27); Reservoir fell to ninth from seventh last quarter, with 1.17% market share and 10 songs (from 1.55% and nine songs), including Ariana Grande’s “Positions” (No. 17); and Pulse Music Group slipped to 10th from eighth last quarter, with 1.08% market share and four songs (from 1.50% and seven songs), including Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love”.
On Hot 100 Songs, Jermaine “J” Cole came in sixth with a 1.89% market share and five songs, thanks to his recent album The Off-Season, including Cole’s “My Life” (No. 48); Reservoir maintains seventh this quarter, falling slightly in market share to 1.52% and rising to 11 songs (from 1.55% and nine songs), including BTS’ “Butter” (No. 7); Hipgnosis Songs Group (formerly Big Deal/Words & Music) placed eight again, with 1.30% market share and two songs (from 1.05% and three songs). Including “déjà vu” (No. 11); Concord reentered the tally at ninth, with 0.81% market share and five songs, including Giveon’s “Heartbreak Anniversary”; and Spirit gained the 10th position, with 0.73% market share and four songs, including Sam Hunt’s “Breaking Up Was Easy In the 90’s” (No. 32).
*For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detecting songs from 1,990 U.S. radio stations electronically monitored by MRC Data, 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the period of April 1 to June 30, 2021. For Top 10 Publishers Hot 100 Songs, percentage calculations were based upon the top 100 songs as ranked by Billboard Hot 100 points calculated from digital sales, streaming and MRC Data-tracked radio airplay detections during the period of March or April 2 to July 1, 2021, reflecting the issue dates of April 17 through July 10. Publisher information for musical works on both charts has been identified by the Harry Fox Agency. A “publisher” is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party.
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