Industry leaders are using a number of excuses for the fall in music sales between April and June this year. The World Cup, in particular, is cited – major sports events like the World Cup generally affect record sales and as a result less new music was released. Record retailers also cited the Jubilee weekend and bad weather as other factors which affected consumer spending during the quarter, and stressed that the same quarter the previous year had been particularly strong, making year on year comparisons unreliable. But either way, a quarterly downturn in total sales value of 15.4% is clearly unwelcome news for the UK industry which has recently outperformed most other international territories. But despite the fall, annualised trade deliveries of albums remained at more than 220m units per annum and their value recorded a small percentage increase. Industry officials hope that stronger releases in the second half of the year, and continuing success of titles such as the quarterly best seller ‘The Eminem Show’, mean sales increases may still be recorded in 2002 as a whole.
Aug 14, 2002
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1 min read
Industry reacts to fall in UK music sales
UK music sales value fell 15.4% in the April to June quarter, with the industry blaming the World Cup, the Jubilee and weather.