Yearly Hot 100 market breakdown: Universal Music Australia
If Universal wereprimingfor a big hit this year, they certainly got what they were looking for. As the world’s biggest record company, UMA leads the industry for radio airplay share in Australia, scoring just under 40% of the TMN Hot 100 airplay chart.
Big-leaguers Shawn Mendes’ and Lorde were the standout performers for the major label in 2017. Both ‘There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back’ (#5) and ‘Green Light’ (#6) delivered expected results, falling comfortably inside the Top 10.
The distribution power of UMA is also a big factor that came into play. For example, Liam Payne and Niall Horan’s smash singles ‘Strip That Down’ and ‘Slow Hands’ are both distributed through the Universal-owned EMI, as is etcetc’s Jax Jones and PNAU. The Hot 40 market share tells an even clearer story. Nearly half of the market has rights ownership or distribution ties to UMA (45%).
After debuting at #21 on the airplay chart at the start of the year, Julia Michaels roared onto the scene in 2017 with ‘Issues’. Within a month of radio pick-up, the ARIA-Platinum single was riding high in the Top 10. Despite such an impact, we get the impression this is still very much the beginning for Michaels.
Lady Gaga proved to be quite the sleeper in 2017. Despite ‘The Cure’ never entering the Top 10 on the Hot 100, a year-end result of #13 seems too good for a track thatfailed to convincecommercial entirely.However, radio faithfully carried the song throughout the year, keeping it in the chart for 34 weeks straight.
Actress-turned-commercial solo artist Hailee Steinfeld has three entries in the yearly chart (‘Most Girls’, ‘Starving’, ‘Let Me Go’), contributing just over 3.5% of UMA’s total Hot 100 market share. With fellow up-and-comers Alessia Cara and Logicalso on board the roster, the UMA train is steaming towards 2018 with nosigns of slowing down.