Publishers Quarterly: Sony Music Publishing Makes History Again in Q3

This year, Sony Music Publishing keeps topping its own record-breaking performances as measured by Billboard’s 20-year-long history of ranking music publishers by market share for hit songs. After scoring the highest-ever market share for the Hot 100 in the second quarter with 37.32%, Sony has now become the first publisher ever to surpass the 40% market share milestone with 42.86% in the just-completed third quarter, setting a new record for that chart. Related That performance makes Sony the top-ranked publisher for the Hot 100 chart, while it was also the No. 1 publisher on the Top Radio Airplay chart, with a 36.02% tally, thus keeping its No. 1 streak going on both charts for the sixth consecutive quarter. To accomplish that feat, Sony claimed 76 songs on the Hot 100 chart and 74 songs on the Radio Airplay Songs list, including Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas,” which finished at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Also helping Sony maintain its No. 1 ranking was its role as the administrator for the top songwriter on the Radio Airplay chart, Shane “sombr” Boose, who placed three songs on that chart, including the No. 30 tune “Back To Friends.” Perhaps the most astounding part of Sony’s performance on the Hot 100 publisher rankings this quarter is that it beat out the No. 2 publisher by 25 percentage points. Coming in second place this quarter was Warner Chappell Music, which turned in a 17.86% market share on the Hot 100 rankings. On the Top Radio Airplay rankings, Warner Chappell was also the No. 2-ranked publisher with a stronger showing, where it tallied a 23.07% market share. On the Top Radio Airplay song list, Warner Chappell snared a stake in 55 songs, with its top song being the No. 3 tune, Bruno Mars’ “Risk It All.” It also had 44 songs on the Hot 100 chart, with its top song, Ariana Grande’s “hate that I made you love me,” landing at No. 4. This marks the third consecutive quarter that Warner Chappell ranked at No. 2 on both charts. For the 12th consecutive quarter, Warner Chappell was also the top-ranked publisher on the Country Radio Airplay chart with a 33.12% share. Similarly, for the third consecutive quarter, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt and BMG ranked, respectively, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 on both charts. In placing third, UMPG tallied a 12.31% share on the Hot 100 rankings, with a stake in 39 songs. On the Radio Airplay chart, its share was 11.33% thanks to 42 song placements. Its top song on both charts was “hate that I made you love me,” which was No. 4 on the Hot 100 and No. 5 on Top Radio Airplay. Both those performances were down from the second quarter, when UMPG had 16.55% and 43 songs on the Hot 100 and 12.45% and 44 songs on Top Radio Airplay. UMPG also benefited from having the top songwriter on the Hot 100 chart, Drake, who placed six songs there. In the third quarter, Kobalt had a 10.16% share on the Hot 100 and a 9.15% share on Top Radio Airplay, thanks to 36 song placements on the former chart and 34 on the latter. Its top-performing song on both charts was “Choosin’ Texas.” When compared to the prior quarter, Kobalt’s Hot 100 third-quarter performance was an improvement from the second quarter’s 9.30% market share and 32 song placements. On the Radio Airplay rankings, Kobalt’s performance was down slightly from the 9.38% share it recorded in the second quarter. The publisher’s song count continued to hold steady across both quarters. Rounding out the top five on the publisher rankings, BMG improved its performance from its second-quarter showing on both charts, with a 7.54% share on Top Radio Airplay and 5.87% on the Hot 100. In both instances, its performance was around two percentage points greater than the prior quarter, when its respective market share was 5.61% and 3.73%. Likewise, its song count improved on both charts in the third quarter, with 22 song placements on Top Radio Airplay (versus 12 songs in the second quarter) and 19 songs on the Hot 100 (versus four songs in Q2). In the third quarter, BMG’s top song on the Hot 100 chart was the No. 9 track, Olivia Dean’s “Man I Need,” while “Risk It All” was its top track on Top Radio Airplay. On the Hot 100, Walt Disney Music landed at No. 6 with a 2.95% share thanks to its stake in Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the No. 3 song on that chart. In the previous quarter, Walt Disney Music had a 1.21% Hot 100 share due to the same song, which was then ranked at No. 30. Disney also landed the No. 6 spot on Top Radio Airplay with a higher market share score of 3.48%, as the Swift song attained an even higher placement on that chart — the coveted No. 1 spot. Helping Disney attain a higher market share on Radio Airplay was having a stake in a second song on that chart, the No. 47 tune, Chris Brown‘s “It Depends” featuring Bryson Tiller. Me Gusta Music came in at No. 7 on both charts, the same slot it held on each in the second quarter. However, this time it boasted slightly higher market shares and song counts. On Top Radio Airplay, it had a 2.51% share due to six song placements, including the No. 11 song, Luke Combs’ “Be By You.” That was an improvement from the previous quarter, when it had five song placements and 2.41% on Radio Airplay. On the Hot 100, its 2.19% with six song placements — including the No. 8 song, Ella Langley and Morgan Wallen’s “I Can’t Love You Anymore” — improved on its 2.01% share and four song placements in the second quarter. Songs of Spirit finished at No. 9 on the Hot 100, where the publisher had a 0.80% share with two song placements; while on the Radio Airplay chart, it was No. 10 with a 0.71% share with four song placements. Its top song on both charts was Ella Langley’s “Be Her,” which finished at No. 7 on the former and No. 33 on the latter. In the bottom half of the Hot 100 rankings, two publishers made their debut on the chart: Endurance Music Group, which placed at No. 8 with a 0.88% showing, thanks to a stake in two songs, including “Be Her”; and Empire, which held down the No. 10 slot with a 0.52% showing thanks to a share in two songs, including the No. 58 tune, Shaboozey’s “Cowgirl.” Rounding out the Radio Airplay rankings, Reservoir’s 0.87% gave it the No. 8 spot, thanks to six song placements, including the No. 12 song, Kehlani’s “Folded;” while Big Machine Music’s 0.74% and three song placements landed it in the No. 9 spot, due to its top song, Luke Bryan’s “Country and She Knows It,” landing at No. 27. In the prior quarter, Big Machine was lower in the rankings on that chart at No. 10, but higher in market share with a 1.34% slice. Methodology: For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 2,392 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, 2026. 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 26 to Sept. 24 and reflecting the issue dates of July 11, 2026, through Oct. 3, 2026. 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.