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Business News Labels & Publishers
British music accounts for one in eight artist albums sold worldwide
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 14 May 2012
Record label trade body the BPI has released new data for 2011 showing that British music accounted for 12.6% of global music sales in 2011, up from 11.8% in 2010. That’s £1.9 billion in retail value, and means that one in eight of all artist albums sold around the world come from the UK industry.
So that’s nice. Nice enough, in fact, that David Cameron has taken to his Blackberry to email us a quote. Well, he BBMed it to someone at the BPI, who has passed it on. Says the PM: “British music is loved all over the globe, and as a country we can be proud of the tremendous success of our music industry, which is a world leader”.
So there you go artists and label owners and songwriters and all other music people, David Cameron is proud of your achievements, which is presumably what you’ve all been striving for all these years.
BPI boss Geoff Taylor also has a quote, which is this: “Britain makes great music – and the world is tuning in. From the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to Coldplay and Adele, our global success helps the reputation of Britain overseas and generates jobs here in the UK. This success is due to the creativity of our artists, but also because we have an innovative, risk-taking music industry in Britain that helps our artists reach billions of fans around the globe. Music is one of the things that makes Britain great. Government support for the British music industry is pivotal to maintaining the UK’s position as the second most important producer of music in the world”.
These stats and quotes have landed on our desks this morning at the start of Music Is GREAT Week, which apparently is a ‘thing’. Or a THING, possibly.
