Moreover, that quarter was one of two quarters — with the other being the third quarter — in which it topped the 30% market share marker for both charts. In the third quarter, it snared 30.90% for Radio Airplay and 33.88% for the Hot 100 — with the latter being the single highest market share performance Sony attained during the year. Related Citrin Cooperman: 2025 Music Catalog Valuations Top $13B Spotify Reveals First-Ever Most Streamed Artists, Songs and Albums List: Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd Are Tops Celeste Rivas Hernandez Cause of Death Revealed After D4vd's Arrest With regard to the publisher rankings, among Sony’s top-performing songs during the year were Leon Thomas’ “Mutt,” Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “Luther.” Other factors boosting Sony’s stellar year-long performance include having the top songwriter for both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 charts in the third quarter and also coming in with the top songwriter on the fourth quarter’s Radio Airplay chart on its roster: Shane “sombr” Boose.

Also during the year, Sony absorbed a big chunk of the Hipgnosis song catalog when it struck a deal with Blackstone and became its administrator. Blackstone acquired the previously publicly-traded Hipgnosis Songs Fund in mid-2024, merged it with its privately owned Hipgnosis Songs Capital, and then rebranded those catalogs as Recognition Music in March 2025. Blackstone subsequently sold the Hipgnosis Songs Group administration platform and some publishing assets to Sony in June 2025 and made that company its main publishing administration partner.

While Sony’s eight percentage point spread in the Hot 100 rankings and seven percentage point spread in the Radio Airplay rankings show it would have been the No. 1 publisher for 2025 with its own song catalog alone, the addition of the Hipgnosis catalog boosted its overall percentage to attain that lofty spread. Indeed, in 2024, Hipgnosis made the top 10 publisher rankings for both the Hot 100 and Radio Airplay charts in every quarter, with its market share ranging from 1.59% (on the Hot 100 ranking in the first quarter of that year) to 4.36% (on the Radio Airplay ranking in the second quarter).

In the first quarter of 2025, Recognition boasted a 1.83% share on the first quarter’s Hot 100 tally. Coming in as the second-ranked music publisher for the full year for both the Hot 100 and the Radio Airplay charts is Warner Chappell Music, which was the only other music publisher besides Sony to surpass the 20% market share milestone on both charts. Its best showing in 2025 was on the Radio Airplay chart, where it garnered 22.50% for the full year, while it produced a 20.29% showing on the Hot 100 chart.

Moreover, Warner Chappell managed to attain better than the 20% market share marker in seven of its eight opportunities during the year, only failing to reach that threshold on the Hot 100 chart in the fourth quarter, when it had a 16.92% share. Its best showing came in the third quarter, when it had a 22.32% share on the Hot 100 chart and a 23.67% share on the Radio Airplay chart. Related Do ‘Evergreen’ Hits Actually Last Forever?

Reservoir CEO Reveals the Opportunities and Risks in Buying Catalogs Warner Chappell’s top songs during the year included “Die With A Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” and “Doechii’s “Anxiety.” Meanwhile, it was the top-ranked publisher on Country Airplay, finishing the year with 31.02% — more than four percentage points higher than its closest rival, Sony, which garnered 26.76% on that chart in 2025. Coming in as the No. 3 ranked publisher last year on both the Hot 100 and the Radio Airplay charts was Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), which garnered a 19.38% market share for the Hot 100 and 15.81% for Radio Airplay.

UMPG’s best showing during the year came in the first quarter, when it tallied a 25.04% market share on the Hot 100 chart, enough to make it the No. 2 ranked publisher on the tally. Its top songs during the year included Taylor Swift’s “The Fate Of Ophelia,” Justin Bieber’s “Daisies,” Shaboozey’s “Good News,” and HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna & REI AMI’s “Golden.” Moreover, a UMPG songwriter — namely Drake — was named the top songwriter on both the Hot 100 charts and Top Radio Air