Hits is also showing surprisingly equal year-to-date market shares for both Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, at 28.7 percent apiece. Warner Music Group is tracking far lower at 14.8 percent, down from 16.1 percent in Q109, also according to Hits.

This is a top-heavy game, and Sony is benefitting from Susan Boyle and Sade blowouts. Warner Music Group is also gaining a substantial chunk of its revenues from bigger releases, as reaffirmed during its latest quarterly earnings call. Next, Nielsen may be weighing in with its own first-quarter tallies, a nice data comparison opportunity.

Amazon debuted its Daily Deal feature in June 2008, and has more recently been asking labels for a one-day exclusive on sales before an album’s official release date, as well as label marketing support for the Daily Deal on an artist’s website and social media pages, the head of sales at a major label told Billboard.

“When that happened, iTunes said, ‘Enough of that shit,’” the executive said.

Due to Apple’s pressure, sources told Billboard that label executives had decided not to promote recent releases from Lady Antebellum and Ke$ha as Amazon Daily Deals.

Authored by Mark Hefflinger