Universal Music held off Sony BMG

Credit: Music Week

Universal Music held off Sony BMG to finish as top singles group in quarter one in the closest battle yet with fewer than 30,000 sales separating them.

Both majors took a 23.4% share of the singles market, although Universal claimed the crown won in the previous quarter by Sony BMG after selling 2,641 singles. The market shares are based solely on physical product at present, with digital sales not yet factored in.

Sony BMG was piped to the post, despite its release That's My Goal by Shayne Ward finishing as the top-selling single for the second quarter in a row. Another X-Factor contestant, Chico, ranked number three for the same major with his debut chart-topping hit It's Chico Time. Universal's biggest hit, Thunder In My Heart by Meck featuring Leo Sayer, was fourth of the quarter.

EMI took third place with 13.5% of the market and Warner Music fourth with 13.0%, while independent FDM ranked fifth with 2.5% thanks to the success of the Nizlopi single JCB Song. The RCA Label Group finished as top singles company, while Universal was top distributor.

Universal's victory as top corporate albums group was somewhat more solid, although it faced a strong EMI, which claimed second spot with 20.4% after bagging two of the quarter's top five sellers with Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled debut (fourth of the quarter) and KT Tunstall's Eye To The Telescope (fifth). Universal's 25.0% albums share was led by the Jack Johnson album In Between Dreams, which reached number one for the first time in the quarter and finished as the second top seller during the three months.

However, Johnson's sales were no match for the Artic Monkeys whose debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not more than doubled In Between Dreams' tally with 867,999 sales to comfortably finish as the quarter's number one. It helped the band's record company to fifth place with 3.2% as Sony BMG slotted into third spot with 19.5% and Warner Music fourth with 13.2%.

Polydor ranked as top albums company, while Universal led the distribution table.