And those are just a few highlights. Before the end of the year, the world's largest music group - currently sporting record marketshare of 30.6% - will release nearly three dozen albums from established artists who have previously sold 300k or better. And that's not counting developing artists and soundtracks. UMG also has four of the top five 2002 albums to date, which so far have been good for more than 14.5 million OTC sales among them: Eminem's The Eminem Show, Nelly's Nellyville, Ashanti's Ashanti and the O Brother ST.

"The labels have done a fantastic job not only coordinating schedules but setting these records up,: UMVD chief Jim Urie enthuses. "We're also benefiting from the artist development work we've done all year. Puddle of Mudd, New Found Glory, Jimmy Eat World and Hoobastank are carrying over from the first three quarters and are now paying off. It's all coming together at the right time."

And now, a few words from the man who, since Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram, has presided over the creation and increasing success of the largest music enterprise on the planet. Here's HITS' own lunchroom market (and sandwich) analyst Roy "Vey" Trakin with the pitch:

UMG remains red-hot, with 30% marketshare and a record-shattering $1 billion EBITDA. To what do you attribute that success?
I attribute our success to the executives who run our various divisions. Because of their talent, we have the greatest fourth quarter we've had coming up - I actually think we're going to increase our marketshare.

Is it good for the business to have a single music group dominating the landscape like UMG? Consolidation hasn't exactly been the best thing to happen to the radio industry.
The difference is we built this company gradually, over eight years - we didn't just buy it. Actually, when we first acquired PolyGram, our marketshare was around 20%

You've repeatedly given credit to your executive team for the company's success.
There's a certain vibe that runs through our company; it's about being thoughtful, reasonable and treating people well. This is a place where the artist comes first. What we've done is put incredible entrepreneurial people in charge of helping artists' careers and given them the autonomy to do so....