Publishers Quarterly: Warner Chappell Wins Triple Crown of Charts for First Time
Written by djfrosty on March 10, 2025
For the first time in the history of Billboard’s Publishers Quarterly rankings, Warner Chappell swept the Hot 100 Songs, Top Radio Airplay and Country Airplay charts in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Although the music publisher’s Nashville division typically places first or second on the Country Airplay chart, this is the first time it has topped the Hot 100 publishers ranking and the first time since the third quarter of 2019 that it ranked No. 1 on the Top Radio Airplay list.
Warner Chappell had a stake in 64 songs and a 25.29% market share on the Radio Airplay list, and 49 songs and a 23.62% market share on the Hot 100 Songs list, including the No. 1 song of the quarter for both charts: “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey. The publisher is also home to the No. 1 Top Radio Airplay songwriter for Q4 of 2024, Amy Allen, who wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” and six other charting tracks.
Trending on Billboard
Sony Music Publishing, which was the No. 1 radio and Hot 100 publisher for the third quarter of 2024, ranked second on both charts, with 63 songs on the radio list (a 24.10% market share), and 58 on the Hot 100 (22.68%). Its top song for both charts was also “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Universal Music Publishing Group finished third for both the Hot 100 (19.92% market share, 44 songs) and Top Radio Airplay (16.79% market share, 42 songs) charts in the fourth quarter and also held a piece of the Shaboozey smash. With nine songs on the Hot 100 — but none in the top 10 — Kendrick Lamar was the No. 1 songwriter on that chart, thanks to the ongoing success of “Not Like Us.”
Kobalt comfortably finished fourth — the best performance by an independent publisher — on both fourth-quarter charts, twin rankings it frequently holds on these lists. The publisher’s radio airplay market share was 12.81%, and it has 10.89% on the Hot 100. Its biggest songs of the quarter were “Too Sweet” by Hozier (No. 2 on Top Radio Airplay) and “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars (No. 2 on the Hot 100).
BMG ranked fifth on both charts, rising two spots from its radio airplay ranking in third quarter 2024 and up one from its Hot 100 ranking in the same quarter.
From there, the rankings on the radio airplay and Hot 100 charts diverge. This is, in part, due to the rise of Christmas music on the Hot 100 while pop radio continued to play perennial hits during the holiday season. Holiday publisher St. Nicholas ranked sixth on the Hot 100 and peermusic ranked ninth, both thanks to their share of top Christmas songs — “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee (St. Nicholas) and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams (peermusic).
The bottom of the Hot 100 top 10 also held a surprise: OuttaHere is the name under which singer-songwriter Gigi Perez publishes her work. The viral success of her “Sailor Song” makes her the first self-published artist to land on the chart since Luke Combs’ cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” put her Purple Rabbit Music on the ranking in 2023 and 2024.
A version of this story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.