State Champ Radio Universal Music Group Publishing
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In the third quarter of 2025, Sony Music Publishing scored a three-peat as the No. 1 publisher on both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs charts for the first three quarters of 2025.
This time around, Sony received a boost from having the top song on both charts, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and the No. 1 songwriter on both charts, Shane “sombr” Boose, who wrote and performed “undressed,” which was No. 7 and No. 22 on Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs, respectively. (Sony administers sombr for Songs of Orchard.)
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They were two of the 75 songs that Sony had on Top Radio Airplay in the third quarter, up from 73 in the second quarter. The publisher had stakes in 69 tracks on the Hot 100 Songs chart, down from 75 in the prior quarter. For both rankings, its market share was down slightly from the second quarter, from 30.90% to 30.76% on Top Radio Airplay and 33.88% to 30.10% on Hot 100 Songs.
Meanwhile, Warner Chappell Music held the No. 2 spot on both rankings for a second consecutive quarter, with 23.67% on Top Radio Airplay and 22.32% on Hot 100 Songs. Both shares were improvements on the publisher’s second-quarter shares of 21.66% and 21.57%, respectively. And while its song count improved from 62 to 64 on Top Radio Airplay, its tally fell from 57 to 52 on Hot 100 Songs. Warner Chappell’s top track on both charts was also “Ordinary.” In addition, Warner Chappell was the No. 1 publisher on the Top Country Radio Airplay list.
Universal Music Publishing Group ranked at No. 3 on both charts, with its Top Radio Airplay market share sliding from 16.79% to 14.79% and its Hot 100 Songs share dipping from 18.56% to 16.62% quarter to quarter. UMPG held stakes in 46 songs on Top Radio Airplay, down one from the second quarter, and its top track was Shaboozey’s “Good News,” which ranked at No. 2. On Hot 100 Songs, its count improved from 50 to 52, with its top track, “Golden” by HUNTR/X from KPop Demon Hunters, also ranking at No. 2.
Kobalt and BMG alternated at Nos. 4 and 5 on both charts, finishing in that order on Top Radio Airplay with 11.24% and 5.28% of the pie and swapping places on Hot 100 Songs: BMG finished fourth with 12.75% — a massive increase from its 3.24% second- quarter share — and Kobalt was fifth with 8.83%.
Kobalt’s song count improved on both charts, growing to 42 in the third quarter from 39 in the prior pro quarter on the Top Radio Airplay list and to 35 from 32 on the Hot 100 chart. Its top song on the former was “Good News,” while its top song on the latter was Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want” featuring Tate McRae, which ranked at No. 3. BMG also had “Good News” as its top performing song on the Radio Airplay list, where its song count fell to 14 tunes from the second quarter’s 16 songs; while on the Hot 100, its song count improved from the second quarters’ 32 songs to 35, with “Golden” as its top song.
Looking at the bottom half of the Radio Airplay publisher rankings, three publishers returned from the second quarter: Big Machine, which moved up to No. 6 from No. 10 last time with a 1.75% share; Concord, which fell one position to No. 8 but improved its market share by 13 basis points to 1.40%; and Position Music, which fell one spot to No. 9 but enjoyed a bigger 18-point basis surge to 1.39%. The top song for both Big Machine and Concord was Russell Dickerson’s “Happen To Me,” which ranked at No. 10, while Position’s Music top performing song was Benson Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else,” which finished at No. 6.
In the third quarter, two publishers that were absent from the Q2 rankings made the top 10: Spirit Music, with a 1.46% share from three song placements on the chart, including its top performing song, Scotty McCreery’s “Bottle Rockets” featuring Hootie & the Blowfish, at No. 20; and Me Gusta Music with a 0.96% share and three song placements on the chart with Luke Bryan’s “Country Song Came On” as its top performer at No. 34.
In the bottom half of the Hot 100 ranking, only two publishers repeated from the second quarter: Position Music and Concord. The former came in at No. 6 with a 1.64% share, the same ranking as the prior quarter; while the latter finished at No. 7 with a 1.07% share, up from No. 10 last quarter. Position’s top song was Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things” at No. 14, while Concord’s top tune was Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild,” at No. 4.
Meanwhile, three publishers that were absent from last quarter’s Hot 100 rankings appeared in the top 10 this quarter. Coming in at No. 8 was Spirit Music with a 0.63% share, with McCreery “Bottle Rockets” featuring Hootie & the Blowfish its top song at No. 40. In ninth place with a 0.55% share was Big Machine, whose top song, Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want” with Tate McRae, placed at No. 3. And in tenth place, Downtown finished with a 0.51% share on the strength of its sole placement on the Hot 100 ranking, Dareyes de La Sierra’s “Frecuencia,” which was the No. 85 song on the tally. Of the three, Spirit had the highest song count with five placements, while Big Machine had a stake in three of the quarter’s Hot 100 songs.
**Methodology: For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 3,133 U.S. radio stations electronically monitored by Mediabase 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the period of July 1 to Sept. 30. For Top 10 Publishers Hot 100 Songs, percentage calculations were based upon the top 100 songs ranked by Billboard Hot 100 points calculated from digital sales, streaming and Mediabase-tracked radio airplay detections during the period of June 27 to Oct. 4 and reflecting the issue dates of July 12 through Oct. 4. Publisher information for musical works on both charts has been identified by the Harry Fox Agency. A “publisher” is defined as an administrator, copyright owner and/or controlling party.**
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Range Music Publishing, a division of Range Media Partners, has finalized an exclusive global administration deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. This marks a major expansion of Range’s existing partnership with Universal, which includes a deal with Capitol Music Group and Virgin Music Group on the recorded music side.
News of the administration deal with UMPG comes just after Range Music Publishing announced the signing of Sean Cook, one of the collaborators for Shaboozey‘s breakout hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” The Range Music Publishing roster includes Grant Averill, Tyler Dopps, Two Fresh, Luke Niccoli, Simon Oscroft and Rudey who are included in this new deal. Range clients Warburton, Luke Grimes and Dylan Gossett are not part of the new agreement.
Established in 2023, Range Music Publishing is helmed by Casey Robison, who previously led Big Deal Music Group as its co-president and partner. Its parent organization, Range Media Partners, is a multi-faceted company, representing businesses and talent in all areas of entertainment — including music, film, tv, production, comedy and sports.
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On the music management side, Range Music represents some of the music industry’s biggest talents including Jack Harlow, Shaboozey, Tanya Tucker, Cordae, Pentatonix, Saweetie, Midland, Murda Beatz, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Lauv, Alec Benjamin, Gossett, MAX, Bazzi, Sean Douglas, Paul Russell, Wondagurl, Russell Dickerson and more.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with our friends at UMPG as we build Range Music Publishing and grow our global footprint,” says Robison. “UMPG’s impressive team will help us maximize creative opportunities while providing first class administration for our growing roster of artists and songwriters. We couldn’t be more proud to call UMPG our partners.”
Range Media Partners co-founder and managing partner Matt Graham continues: “On behalf of our partnership we are thrilled to be formalizing our longstanding relationship with UMPG. The collaboration ensures greater creative support and administration for our writers, producers and artists. Together, we are committed to connecting the dots across our myriad of talent as well as the varying facets of our film, tv, sports and gaming relationships.”
Jennifer Knoepfle, UMPG executive vp and co-head of A&R, said: “In the short time Range has focused on publishing, they have already made a strong impact in the marketplace. Casey, Sam, Matt and team have a great ethos and vision and we are happy to be their admin partner on current and future endeavors.”
Bucks Music Group has launched Chelsea Songs, a joint venture with music publishing veteran Eddie Levy. The new publisher represents works by Bill Withers, Andre Rieu, the Barton Music catalog – which contains standards such as “Ain’t That A Kick In The Head,” “Come Fly With Me” and others – and hits such as The Hues Corporation’s “Rock The Boat,” Janet Kay’s “Silly Games,” and Buscemi’s “Ole Ole We Are The Champions” for the UK at launch. As part of the agreement, Bucks will handle administration and creative sync.
Third Side Music has signed the late Alan Watts to a new worldwide publishing deal. Known as one of the defining writers and scholars of the Beat Generation, the deal with Watts is through his estate, The Alan Watts Organization. As part of the deal, Third Side Music will now foster unique creative music opportunities for Watts’ trove of 500+ house of audio commentary, lectures and radio programming for use in new songs, films, TV shows, ads, and more.
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Milk & Honey Music + Sports has signed Grammy-winning songwriter and artist Jozzy (Beyoncé, Summer Walker, 21 Savage) to a new management deal. Along with the new signing, the company’s founder and CEO, Lucas Keller, has announced the addition of manager Jason Ramos (previously of Roc Nation) to the Milk & Honey team.
Prescription Songs has extended its publishing deal with Vaughn Oliver. A multi-platinum producer, sound designer, DJ, and mix engineer, Vaughn began his partnership with Prescription in 2019 and since then, has worked on a number of top tracks, including “Super Freaky Girl” by Nicki Minaj, “Big Energy” by Latto, and “Her” by Megan Thee Stallion.
C3 Management launches C3 Publishing, a joint venture with Warner Chappell Music. Founded by Charlie Walker and Charles Attal of C3 Presents and C3 Management and led by Russell Baltera, the company will employ WCM’s help with a&r, creative, and sync. Its first signee is Natalie Jane, a rising singer-songwriter.
BMG has extended its publishing administration agreement with Too Lost, a music technology company and distributor. The companies’ partnership began in 2021, and under the terms of the deal, the two handle the rights for songs like “Jocelyn Flores” by XXXTENTACION, “BEEF” FloMix by Flo Milli and more.
Universal Music Publishing Group has signed the members of indie pop band The Wallows to global publishing deals. Known best for their song “Are You Bored Yet?” (feat. Clairo), the SoCal trio is comprised of actor Dylan Minnette, Braedon Lemasters and Cole Preston.
Spirit Music Nashville/2 Mix Music has signed Ryan Beaver to a worldwide publishing deal. Named the “Rising Songwriter of the Year” for 2023 by the AIMP Nashville Country Music Awards, Beaver recently penned the track “Pretty Little Poison” b y Warren Zeiders and “Party Mode” by Dustin Lynch. He has also written songs for Blake Shelton, Ryan Hurd, HARDY, Larry Fleet, Parker McCollum, Josh Abbott, Catie Offerman and Luke Bryan.
Warner Chappell Music has signed Brazilian producer Zerb to a global publishing deal. News of the deal arrives just the rise of Zerb’s biggest hit to date: “Mwaki” featuring Kenyan vocalist Sofiya Nzau, which has gained even more traction with recent remixes by Major Lazer and Tiësto.
Warner Chappell Music has signed emerging singer-songwriter Evan Bartels to a global publishing deal.
Wise Music Group‘s Bosworth Music has signed a new long-term administration agreement to represent the publishing catalog of Random Noize Musick. The roster includes German electronic talents like as Markus Popp (Oval), Annika Henderson (Anika), Pilocka Krach, T.Raumschmiere, Apparat, Moderat, and Sascha Ring.
Downtown Music Publishing has signed French artists Boombass and Étienne de Crécy to worldwide publishing agreements. Boombass is best known as one half of the renowned duo Cassius and and de Crécy has gained acclaim as a DJ and producer.
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