An analysis of platinum, gold and silver awards by the Association of Independent Music yesterday provided good news for the independent sectors – over a quarter of the original artist albums that went platinum last year were on independent labels. Other stats in the survey:
The study of sales of new albums by UK artists in 2002 reveals: 5 out of 13 (38.5%) UK artists who reached platinum status were UK indie signed. Thelabels were: Infectious (Ash – 'Free All Angels'), Mushroom (Muse – 'Origin Of Symmetry'), Wildstar (Craig David – 'Slicker Than Your Average'), V2 (Liberty X – 'Thinking It Over'), and Brighton's own Skint Records ('Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between Heaven & The Stars').
9 out of 29 (31%) UK artists who reached gold status were UK indie signed. The labels were: V2 (Elbow – 'Asleep In The Back'), XL (White Stripes – 'White Blood Cells'), XL/Twisted Nerve (Badly Drawn Boy – 'About A Boy' and 'Have You Fed The Fish?'), Visible Noise (Lostprophets – 'Fake Sound Of Progress'), Independiente (Paul Weller - 'Illumination'), Infectious (Ash – 'Intergalactic Sonic Sevens'), Echo (Feeder - 'Comfort In Sound'), Jazzee Blue ('Chris Rea - Dancing Down The Stoney Road')
8 out of 24 (33.3%) of UK artists who reached for silver status were UK indie signed. The labels were: Sanctuary (Alison Moyet - 'Hometime'), Rulin' (Jakatta - 'Visions'), XL (Lemon Jelly - 'Lemonjelly. KY' and 'Lost Horizons'), Mushroom (Muse - 'Hullabaloo'), Perfecto (Paul Oakenfold - 'Bunkka') and the mighty mighty Ninja Tune and Big Dada (Mr Scruff – 'Keep It Unreal', Roots Manuva - 'Run Come Save Me' respectively).
Corporate-extruded pop like Will Young and Gareth Gates will continue to dominate the multi-platinum categories, but even here there were considerable victories for some indies: V2 and Independiente had notable multi-platinum sales for Stereophonics ('Just Enough Education To Perform' 5 x platinum = 1,500,000) and Travis ('The Invisible Band' 4 x platinum = 1,200,000 units).
One American site sounded surprised as it reported the story saying: "Against a backdrop of a 21.5% share of the album market in 2002, the statistics prove the UK indies' prowess at breaking new British music, and the importance of the sector to the British music industry." We know.