The independent labels are having a massive impact so far this year. Prime movers include
Bang Si-hyuk-led
Big Hit with
BTS and
Ty Baisden’s
Lost Kids with
Brent Faiyaz, who came up just short last week in a fierce, old-school indie-label battle with
Bad Bunny—on
Noah Assad’s
Rimas—in a watershed moment for the surging independent sector.
The explosion of the Puerto Rican phenom, with his game-changing Spanish-language album, along with a comparably massive world tour, is hands down the story of the year.
Un Verano Sin Ti has spent 10 weeks north of 100k since its 5/6 release, and that streak isn’t likely to end anytime soon. The motor behind
Sony indie distribbery
The Orchard’s .6% rise to 5.9 YTD, the 23-song LP—Bunny’s second straight chart-topping debut for Rimas—is already #2 YTD, and it’s primed to overtake
Disney’s
Encanto as the biggest of ’22 before the end of July.
Although Rimas and HYBE aren’t considered classic indies in that they’re distributed by majors, their current successes signify the democratization of the ecosystem, as did
Big Loud’s deft setup of
Morgan Wallen’s breakthrough prior to label head
Seth England making the deal with
Republic.
Moving to the majors,
Interscope Geffen A&M remains the #1 label despite the lack of a game-changing breakthrough on the order of
Geffen rookie
Olivia Rodrigo, who led the company to a stunning 10.1% finish last year, or
Billie Eilish before her. It’s a testament to
John Janick’s rarefied leadership skills that he’s nonetheless rolled a 9.8, with Rodrigo’s #7 YTD
Sour still the biggest of IGA’s major-league-leading dozen Top 50 albums, followed by the company’s most recent charting releases:
Kendrick Lamar’s provocative
TDE swan song at #13 and BTS’ Geffen debut at #14. That sprinkling of extra-base hits was just enough to edge out the
Atlantic cluster of labels (9.5%), which has the #5 album from
Gunna and eight Top 50 singles.
Third-place Republic (7.9) continues to do what
Monte Lipman has always done—light up the scoreboard—but he’s also been fine-tuning the label group, relaunching
Mercury and getting mileage out of
Imperial. Meanwhile the share of
Island, with aggressive new leadership from
Imran Majid and
Justin Eshak, also goes in Republic’s column. On top of the gazillions generated by
Drake,
The Weeknd,
Taylor Swift and
Post Malone, all of whom have Top 25 albums YTD, Wallen’s
Dangerous—#3 on the year—is cemented in the Top 10 as if by Krazy Glue in the first half of its
second year in release while moving another 1.2m units YTD.
Columbia (6.9) is solidly entrenched at #4 with its blend of household names and
Ron Perry-developed supernovas. Heavy hitters
Harry Styles,
Adele,
The Kid LAROI,
Polo G and
Lil Nas X have notched six Top 50 albums and five Top 50 singles among them, while
Parkwood’s
Beyoncé is back in play with a reactive new track off her upcoming album, the fittingly titled
Renaissance.
Warner (6.2) has a pair of rapidly rising smashes in
Joji’s “Glimpse of Us” and
Kate Bush’s
Stranger Things-ignited, 37-year-old cult classic “Running Up That Hill,” while
Zach Bryan and
Cody Johnson are leading the Red Dirt Country posse.
Aaron Bay-Schuck and
Tom Corson’s resurgent label is battling for #5 with
Michelle Jubelirer’s
Capitol Music Group (6.0), with key contributors including
Virgin and
Capitol Christian. A roster loaded with next-gen female stars has lifted
RCA to the 5% tier. Leading the way is
Doja Cat, who recently became just the seventh artist to score five Top 5 singles from the same album—2021’s
Planet Her.
While Wallen, Bryan and Johnson have a lot to do with Country’s expanding footprint,
Sony Nashville’s
Luke Combs—with two Top 50 albums and a third just released—and
UMG Nashville’s
Chris Stapleton muscled the genre into the mainstream and remain as potent as ever.
Monument’s late-blooming
Walker Hayes has become a force as well with his
TikTok-fueled earworm “Fancy Like” and provocative follow-up “AA.”
The
Encanto soundtrack’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”—one of its five Top 50 entries—is still the biggest song of the year—but who’ll be on top of the heap come September?
