country publishers quarterly
Warner Chappell continued to dominate the Country Airplay chart for a fifth consecutive quarter in Q4 of 2024 with a strong 33.67% market share and 71 songs on the chart. This includes the quarter’s No. 1 song “I Am Not Okay” by Jelly Roll, which was co-written by WCM Nashville/Tape Room Music’s Casey Brown and Taylor Phillips.
Sony Music Publishing comes in second with 19.57% market share, thanks to its 53 songs on the chart, also including “I Am Not Okay,” which was co-written by SMP talent, Ashley Gorley. Gorley, a longtime hitmaker in Nashville, is this quarter’s top songwriter too.
Universal Music Publishing Group holds the third spot, just as it did in the last quarter, with a 9.81% share of the chart and 26 ranked songs. Among its many Country Airplay hits is “Pour Me A Drink” by genre-bending star Post Malone which ranked as the second biggest song on the chart this quarter.
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Kobalt came in fourth place with a 6.83% market share and 19 songs on the chart. BMG arrives in fifth, up one spot from Q3 thanks to its share of songs like “I Am Not Okay.” In total, the Berlin-based company has shares of 14 songs on the Q4’s Country Airplay chart.
Concord, the fifth largest publisher on the Country Airplay chart, significantly grew its market share this quarter, from 2.51% in Q3 to 4.17% in Q4. Among its 13 songs on the chart is “Lies Lies Lies” by Morgan Wallen, the fourth biggest song of the quarter.
“Lies Lies Lies” was also a major contributor to Big Machine Music’s 3.53% market share this quarter, ranking them at No. 7. Reservoir Media came in eighth for Q4 with “Gonna Love You” by Parmalee bolstering its 1.85% share of the chart.
Pulse is a newcomer to the Country Airplay ranking this quarter at No. 9. Its top song was “High Road” by East Texas favorite Koe Wetzel, marking its official entrance to the upper echelon of Nashville publishers.
Finally, Hipgnosis rounds out the list at No. 10 with a 1.53% market share and 3 songs on the chart, including “4x4xu” by Lainey Wilson.
For the second quarter of 2024, Warner Chappell Music (WCM) continued to hold the top spot on Billboard‘s Country Airplay publisher rankings, marking its third consecutive quarter at No. 1.
With a 33.53% market share — up half a percentage point from Q1 — WCM’s Nashville team won big with hits including “Where It Ends” by Bailey Zimmerman, who along with the song’s producer, Austin Shawn, has been signed to WCM since 2023. Apart from Sony Music Publishing’s five-consecutive-quarter stint at No. 1 from Q3 of 2022 to Q3 of 2023, Warner Chappell has consistently held the quarterly top country music publisher title in Nashville, dating back to the first quarter of 2017.
Sony landed in second place with an 18.94% market share and 49 songs on the Q2 Country Airplay chart, including hits “Outskirts” by Sam Hunt (No. 3), “Take Her Home” by Kenny Chesney (No. 5), and “World on Fire” and “Bulletproof” by Nate Smith (Nos. 11 and 12). Of the 49 songs Sony had on the chart, 15 were co-written by Ashley Gorley, earning him the distinction of being the quarter’s top Country Airplay songwriter.
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Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) moved up one spot in the rankings to third place with a 7.69% market share and 23 songs on the quarter’s Country Airplay chart. “Outskirts” by Sam Hunt, “Tucson Too Late” by Jordan Davis (No. 6), “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen (No. 15), and “Cowgirls” by Wallen (No. 16) were among UMPG’s top songs for the quarter.
Kobalt rose to No. 4 with a 6.88% market share, up from fifth place and 5.78% last quarter. It also controls a slice of the sixth-ranked track, Davis’ “Tucson Too Late, along with 22 other songs on the quarter’s chart.
BMG fell from third place in Q1 to fifth with a 4.95% market share. The Berlin-based music company’s biggest song this quarter was “Halfway to Hell” by Nashville superstar Jelly Roll, which ranked fourth on Country Airplay in Q2. BMG had eleven songs on the chart.
Big Machine Music finished sixth with a 4.19% market share thanks to its slice of Tyler Hubbard’s “Back Then Right Now” and eleven other songs. At No. 7, Hipgnosis made its debut on the country publisher rankings with a 3.48% market share and four songs, including a share of “Where It Ends” by Zimmerman.
At No. 8, St. Music also debuts on the Country Airplay publisher rankings with two songs, including “We Ride” by Bryan Martin. Concord came in ninth with 2.31% of the market thanks in part to “One Bad Habit” by Tim McGraw.
Anthem rounds out the top 10 with hits including “Cab in a Solo” by Scotty McCreery. The publisher held the same ranking in Q1 but improved its market share significantly, up from 1.87% to 2.18% quarter to quarter.
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