Record-Label Market Share Q1 2023: Republic Jumps to Big Lead in Current as RCA Heads Sony Surge

Through the first three months of 2023, two albums have largely defined the year and had a profound effect on the record-label market share rankings for the first quarter: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, on Republic, and SZA’s S.O.S., on RCA. Combined, the albums have spent all but two weeks atop the Billboard 200 this year and have contributed significantly to major gains for their respective labels.

In terms of current market share — albums released in the past 18 months — Republic Records has had a white-hot start, posting a 12.45% mark and besting the second-highest label, Interscope Geffen A&M (7.75%), by nearly five full percentage points. While Republic has continued to benefit from an exceptionally strong fourth quarter of 2022 — Q4 releases like Taylor Swift’s Midnights, Metro Boomin’s Heroes & Villains and Drake & 21 Savage’s Her Loss are all in the top 10 most-consumed albums of 2023 so far — much of that increase can be attributed to Wallen’s album. One Thing at a Time is so big that Wallen’s Republic label partner, Big Loud Records, would have ranked as the No. 8 label in current share in Q1 if it were broken out on its own, having posted a 2.84% share so far in the year. (Republic’s market share encompasses Big Loud, Island, Cash Money, Mercury and indie distributor Imperial.) In fact, the first-week impact of Wallen’s album was so large that it boosted Republic’s single-week current market share from 9.76% the week before it came out to 18.14% the week it debuted, meaning that nearly one in every five album consumption units that week was a Republic Records release. Women Morgan Wallen Shirts