The results are in: for the first quarter of 2024, Warner Chappell earned the top spot in the Country Airplay publisher rankings for the second quarter in a row.
With a 33.08% market share, WCM, led in Nashville by President/CEO Ben Vaughan, is the leading publisher. That's because the publisher had shares in eight of the quarter's top 10 songs. Overall, it also had shares in 68 of the quarter's top 100 Country Airplay songs, including No. 1's “World On Fire.” Poison.”
In addition to Sony Music Publishing's five consecutive quarters at No. 1 from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023, Warner Chappell has consistently held the title of Nashville's top quarterly country music publisher dating back to 2017 or so.
This quarter Sony Music Publishing held second place with a market share of 20.04% on the Country Airplay chart. SMP has shares in 51 of the songs on the chart, including the top two tunes this quarter, both thanks to his relationship with one of Nashville's biggest hitmakers Ashley Gorleywho sold his catalog and signed a deal with SMP (in partnership with Domain Capital Group) in May 2022. For the first quarter, Gorley ranked as the top country songwriter, with co-writing credit on 16 of the songs of the period The Top 100 Songs of Country Airplay.
The rest of the market share for other companies on the Country Airplay chart lags far behind Nashville's top two publishers. BMG comes in third, for example, with an 8.18% market share, up slightly more than two percentage points from last year's Q1 6.09% Country Airplay market share. It's the first time BMG has ranked above major publisher Universal Music Publishing Group since Q1 2018. Top songs for the publisher this quarter include Cody Johnson's “The Painter,” the No. 4 song on the Country Airplay chart and Chayce Beckham's “23,” the 8th tune.
Universal Music Publishing Group ranks fourth this quarter with a market share of 6.85%. Advertising signMap of Country Airplay. Just three quarters ago, UMPG had a particularly good quarter with a ranking of 12.71% — about double what it reached this time. Top songs for UMPG include Thomas Rhett's “Mawmaw's House,” the No. 5 song, and Scotty McCreery's “Cab in a Solo,” the No. 15 song.
Looking at the rankings from No. 5 to No. 8, Kobalt ranks fifth in market share for the Country Airplay chart with 5.78%. Big Machine Music slightly outpaces Concord with market shares of 4.11% to 4.10%, respectively. Spirit Music ranks eighth with 2.02%.
The ninth largest publisher on the Country Airplay chart is owned by Purple Rabbit Music, the publishing company that represents songwriter Tracy Chapman. The spot represents the continuing influence of her song “Fast Car,” which was covered by Luke Combs last year and the two artists performed together at the Grammy Awards earlier this year. Its placement in the ranking represents its debut for Top 10 Country Airplay publishers.
Finally, Anthem rounds out the top 10 Country Airplay publishers with a 1.87% market share, a mark lower than Purple Rabbit's 1.88% share for the quarter.
