Female artists help Universal Music Publishing win the summer

Thanks to a wave of distinctive (and confessional) new albums from female artists, Universal Music was behind the biggest songs of the summer.

The Big Picture: Charli XCX may not be a Universal client, but brat summer reached far and wide for female artists, giving the girls reign over the top of the charts just a year after Taylor Swift (also a UMPG client) ruled the music world.

Between the Lines: UMPG has a lot to brag about this summer.

• Female clients had some of the biggest singles of the summer, including Billie Eilish (“Birds of a Feather”), Sabrina Carpenter (“Espresso”), Lorde (“Girl, So Confusing” remix), Megan Thee Stallion (“Mamushi”), and Ariana Grande (“We Can’t Be Friends”).
• That led UMPG to land the top spot during the second quarter of 2024 in Billboard’s Publisher’s Quarterly.
• Part of the reason was the 2022 hiring of Sony’s Jennifer Knoepfle as EVP and co-head of US A&R, who brought over super-producer Jack Antonoff along with her — Antonoff is a favorite collaborator among many of the mentioned artists.

Closing Thoughts: Whether it’s UMPG artists like Swift and Carpenter, or non-clients like Charli XCX and Chappell Roan, female expression is definitely in the air… which Knoepfle says is due to a “beautiful freedom in the business right now that’s allowing people to just be who they want to be, and that empowerment is spreading. I think that might be one reason why we’re seeing so many female artists explode at the same time.” Essentially, every listener has someone to identify with.

Go Deeper: Songwriter Amy Allen is the pen behind many of the biggest pop hits of the summer. Put some respect on the stealthy wordsmiths.