Sony/ATV Tops Publisher Airplay Charts
Sony/ATV dominated Billboard’s Publisher Airplay Charts for the third quarter, with 25.7 percent of U.S. radio airplay from July 1 to Sept. 30. It is the first time EMI Music Publishing’s catalog has counted toward the tally of new owner Sony/ATV, resulting in a significant lead over second place finisher Kobalt, which scored 17.5 percent of all-genre airplay. If Sony/ATV and EMI were not combined, Kobalt would have likely ranked No. 1 on the overall chart.
Sony/ATV also slid into first place on the Top 10 Country Publisher Airplay Chart with 23.4 percent market share. Following were Warner/Chappell with 11.7 percent, and Universal Music Publishing with 9.6 percent.
The indies who made the list are worth noting, including Words and Music (No. 4 with 7.7%), Big Loud Bucks (No. 6 with 4.2%), Cal IV (No. 7 with 3.5%), and Wrensong (No. 10 with 1.8%).
Other majors in the Country Top 10 were BMG Chrysalis (No. 5 with 5.9%), Kobalt (No. 8 with 2.5%) and ole (No. 9 with 1.9%).
The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA) prepares the charts from information in its comprehensive database, which determines a publisher’s share of a song. A publisher is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party. The charts are based upon airplay information provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. For the Country charts, percentage calculations are based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 221 U.S. Country radio stations. The chart is in Billboard’s Nov. 24 issue.
