Sports analysts have recently adopted a system that groups the major college football programs into tiers, and that concept applies nicely to the major labels halfway through the marketshare season.
By themselves in Tier One—the
Clemson and
Alabama of the majors—are
Interscope Geffen A&M, with 10.5% in total activity marketshare, and
Atlantic, with 10.3%. We’ve been impressed by Team
Janick’s ability to hit for extra bases, but for now we’ll opt for another sports analogy: IGA is the best in the business at consistently moving the chains, landing a league-leading 12 albums in the YTD Top 50 to eight for Atlantic, last year’s champ. While superstars like
Eminem,
Billie Eilish,
Lady Gaga and
Selena Gomez continue to
deliver, so do next-gen scorers including
DaBaby (with two Top 20 LPs),
Summer Walker,
Rod Wave,
Moneybagg Yo and the late
Juice WRLD, as
Lil Uzi Vert and
Roddy Ricch light up the scoreboard for Atlantic. This one could go down to the wire.
Tier Two is equally competitive, as
Republic (7.8%) and
Capitol Music Group (7.5%) trade punches.
Monte’s posse continues to pile up the yardage behind
The Weeknd,
with the #2 album;
Post Malone, with his three LPs all in the Top 50, paced by
Hollywood’s Bleeding at #5;
Drake (#14 and 45); and
Taylor Swift (#21). But a newly minted superstar,
QC/Motown/Capitol’s
Lil Baby, has just taken the lead in the competition for 2020’s biggest album, as ball-coach
Barnett’s game plan hits paydirt.
Columbia is currently #5 at 6.9%, with #9
BTS and #13
Harry Styles leading the way, but
Ron Perry is deep into the process of remaking the roster, exemplified by
Polo G’s Top 50 status, and some of his five-star recruits are bound to make some noise by year’s end.
Warner leads Tier Three with 6.2%, indicating that
Max Lousada’s belief in the
Bay-Schuck/Corson duo was on the money.
Peter Edge’s
RCA (4.8), which has broken #20
Doja Cat, is in a virtual tie with
Brad Navin’s distribution aggregator
The Orchard, which has become a key contributor to
Sony Music’s bottom line.
Atop Tier Four and rounding out the Top 10 are
Sylvia Rhone’s
Epic and the
Jeff Harleston-led
Def Jam (2.2%), but
Randy Goodman’s
Sony Music Nashville is just .006 behind, while
Mike Dungan’s
UMG Nashville remains in the mix with 2.0%.
