Sony Music Publishing remained the top-ranked publisher in the first half of 2025 after snaring the No. 1 slot on both the Top Radio Airplay and Hot 100 Songs publisher rankings in the second quarter.

Sony, which has held the No. 1 spot on Top Radio Airplay for 16 of the last 17 quarters, added three percentage points to its first-quarter 2025 performance on the chart, increasing its market share from 27.61% to 30.90%.

The publisher’s performance on the second-quarter Hot 100 Songs chart was even more impressive. Sony’s 33.88% of the pie is not only the highest market share recorded since Publishers Quarterly began tracking Hot 100 songs in the first quarter of 2019, but also a more than five percentage point increase from the first quarter. Previously, the high market share performance was Sony’s 32.58%, which the publisher posted in the second quarter of 2021.

A small factor in that upswing was Sony’s recent acquisition of the Hipgnosis Songs Group catalog, which contributed 0.90% to its Hot 100 performance. But even if those assets are not counted, the resulting 32.98% market share still represents a record.

Sony’s top song on both publisher rankings was Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther,” which held the same distinction for Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and BMG.

Lamar’s 2024 rap-battle opponent, Drake, was the top songwriter on both rankings due to his credits as the sole writer of “Nokia” (No. 7 on the Hot 100 and No. 13 on Radio Airplay for the quarter) and one of two writers for his collaboration with PartyNextDoor on “Somebody Loves Me.”

Ashley Gorley was the top country writer with credits on 17 songs on the quarter’s Top Country Airplay Radio chart, including Jelly Roll’s “Liar.”

Warner Chappell Music improved upon its first-quarter performance by holding on to second place on Radio Airplay — albeit down from a 22.45% share in the first quarter to 21.66% — and moving from No. 3 to No. 2 on the Hot 100. On the latter, the publisher finished the second quarter with 21.57% of the market, up from 20.52% in the previous quarter. Doechii’s “Anxiety” and Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” the No. 2 songs on the Radio Airplay and Hot 100 charts, respectively, were Warner Chappell’s top-performing songs for the quarter. Meanwhile, Warner Chappell was once again the top-ranked country radio publisher for the seventh consecutive quarter, with a 30.81% share. 

UMPG took third place on both publisher rankings. Its 16.73% share on Radio Airplay was down slightly from 17.83% in the prior quarter, when it ranked second. It posted a bigger market-share decline on the Hot 100, dropping from 25.04% to 18.56%.

Kobalt and BMG held steady at No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, although the former had a better time of it. Kobalt’s share rose for both charts, growing 8.64% to 9.36% quarter-to-quarter in Top Radio Airplay, and 8.23% to 9.03% in the Hot 100 ranking. On the other hand, BMG’s shares fell: 5.62% to 5.36% in Radio Airplay, and 3.64% to 3.24% in the Hot 100 category.  

Me Gusta Music, which made its Publishers Quarterly debut in the first quarter when it ranked on the Top Country Radio Airplay chart, graduated to the all-genre rankings in Q2. It placed No. 6 on Top Radio Airplay with 2.05% of the market and a share of six tunes, including its top song, Kane Brown’s “Backseat Driver.” Me Gusta finished at No. 8 on the Hot 100 publishers chart with 1.01%, with Ella Langley’s “Weren’t For The Wind” taking top song honors. 

Concord, Position, Pulse and Big Machine round out the Top Radio Airplay publisher rankings, with Concord and Position also appearing on the Hot 100 tally. The latter ranking also saw Mothership Music Publishing make its second consecutive appearance on the chart, at No. 9, with a 1.01% share. Meanwhile, the Royalty Network returned to the rankings for the first time since Q1 2021 with a 1.14% market share.  

*Methodology For the Top 10 Publishers Top Radio Airplay chart, percentage calculations were based upon the overall top 100 detected songs from 3,066 U.S. radio stations electronically monitored by Mediabase 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the period of April 1 to June 30. For the Top 10 Publishers Hot 100 Songs chart, 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 March 28 to June 26 and reflecting the issue dates of April 12 through July 5. 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.