BOB NAILS DOWN EMI MUSIC'S LEAD.

The traditional battle for the UK publishing crown was as close ever, although EMI eventually triumphed, writes Paul Williams

EMI Music Publishing lost out buying independent powerhouse Rondor Music, but must be mightily relieved that its rival Universal Music took so long to ink the deal.

Factors including an old legal action related to the sale of A&M, lengthy due diligence work and Universal's own sale to Vivendi meant that the major's negotiations with Rondor founders and owners Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss dragged on a year before Universal finally got its hands on the publishing company last August. And those delays in turn cost Universal valuable UK market share.

As it was, EMI was able to win the title again, albeit by an even narrower margin than in 1999: just 0.7 percentage points separated it from second-placed Universal this time, compared with 0.9 points the year before. As a result it will be EMI's Peter Reichardt who walks on to the stage at next month's Music Week Awards to claim the title. However, he may well want to consider sharing the platform with Bob The Builder, who played a crucial role in tipping the balance in EMI's favour.

Bob's hit Can We Fix It sold a staggering 853,000 units in just three weeks last December to become the year's biggest-selling single as EMI grabbed 100% of the publishing rights. The song, penned by Paul Joyce, was the only hit among the year's Top 10 singles on which the publisher could make a total claim, although it was also represented on a broad spread of hits from. All Saints (16.7% of Pure Shores), Robbie Williams (22.0% of Rock DJ), Spiller (30.0% of Groovejet) and S Club 7 (50.0% of Never Had A Dream Come True).

Indeed, the singles market was where EMI comfortably enjoyed its biggest triumphs, exactly matching last year's unbeatable score of 20.4%. In contrast, on albums it could only manage third place with 15.4%, a total that was noticeably down on the previous year's 19.5% and which allowed Universal to stay in front and Warner/Chappell to climb ahead of both of them.

Universal also had a less successful time on albums and -- despite staying ahead of EMI for another year -- it actually suffered a much bigger fall than its rival. In 1999 Universal led on albums by a comfortable 3.6 percentage points with a 23.1% share, but a year on that share had tumbled to 15.7% to move the company down to second spot. However, unlike EMI, which failed to better its 1999 totals on singles, albums and combined, Universal did improve its fortunes on singles, with its share rising 2.4 percentage points year-on-year to 18.2%. Its biggest successes here included All Saints' Pure Shores -- on which its share rose from 27.8% to 55.6% during the year on the back of the Rondor deal -- Sonique's It Feels So Good (50%) and Toca's Miracle by Fragma (50%).