SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING SCORES ANOTHER ‘EASY’ WIN
Disney makes its premiere on the Hot 100 publishing ranking thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda
SONY MUSIC PUBLISHING led the first-quarter 2022 publisher rankings on both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 charts — its eighth consecutive No. 1 on the latter chart — while British rock band Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” single-handedly catapulted their respective publishers, Hipgnosis and Disney, onto one or both of the rankings.
Sony had stakes in 58 songs on the first-quarter Hot 100 chart, good for a 22.65% share of the market and up from 51 songs and a 22.51% market share in the fourth quarter of 2021, respectively. The music publisher’s first-place finish on the Radio Airplay ranking — its 37th over the last 39 quarters
— is thanks to shares in 57 of the top 100 songs; good for a 24.67% market share. Despite the win, Sony’s market share and song count were down from the previous quarter, 27.7% and 59, respectively. Its top song on both charts was Adele’s “Easy on Me.”
Universal Music Publishing Group, which finished No. 2 on both rankings, also had mixed results. Its Radio Airplay market share grew to 21.74% from 21.49% in the fourth quarter, albeit with a quarter-to-quarter decline in song count from 55 to 53 of the top 100 songs. Its top track on both charts: “Heat Waves.”
On the Hot 100 publishers chart, however, UMPG’s market share fell more than a percentage point from 21.47% in the previous quarter to 20.4%, and its song count dropped from 51 to 46.
Warner Chappell Music maintained its No. 3 rank on the publishers chart with a 14.99% share, up from 14.8% in the prior quarter. Its song count also grew quarter-to-quarter from 44 to 49, and its top track was The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay.” On the Radio Airplay chart, Warner Chappell fell to fourth place, surpassed by Kobalt, which benefited from a 1.5 percentage-point surge in market share to 16.77% with a share of 41 tunes, up from 38 in the fourth quarter. Kobalt placed fourth on the Hot 100 ranking.
Warner Chappell’s drop to No. 4 was precipitated by a market-share decline from 16.08% to 15.51%, although its song count on Radio Airplay rose from 51 to 54, including “Stay.” In country music, Warner Chappell remained the No. 1 publisher for a 21st consecutive quarter.
“Heat Waves” was the No. 1 song on both charts, and its writer, frontman Dave Bayley, emerged as the top songwriter on the Radio Airplay chart for the quarter and No. 2 on the Hot 100 ranking behind “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” writer Lin-Manuel Miranda. The successes of those songs were the sole reasons that Hipgnosis (“Heat Waves”) landed in the top 10 of both rankings and Walt Disney (“Bruno”) made the Hot 100 publishers ranking for the first time since it was established in 2019.