UK record companies invest more proportionately in research and development than the aerospace, defence, car and computer industries. I know this, because the BPI told me. Which was very good of them.
In fact, by comparing the record companies' R&D expenditure with that reported by the DTI for other business sectors, the music industry is second only to the pharmaceutical industry in R&D investment - and they, as we all know, are evil, so they don't count. What exactly the record companies are researching and developing we're not sure - hopefully innovative ways to develop, communicate and sell the musical creations of the nation's artistic community, though presumably all that dodgy copy-protection software was researched and developed somewhere along the line, so it might not all be money well spent.
Either way, the BPI are using the record companies' high investment in R&D type things as one argument for the extension of the recorded music copyright which, of course, is being much debated at the moment because of the government sanctioned Gower Review of copyright law. BPI chairman Peter Jamieson observes: "We have long pointed out that record companies are the biggest investors in new music in the UK. This new data shows that in comparative terms the recorded music sector stacks up well against British industry as a whole and, surprisingly, against some of the most R&D intensive hi-tech sectors. Key to maintaining that investment is a strong copyright regime. We hear much from commentators about the transformation of the UK into a 'knowledge economy' based on creativity and intellectual property, but the recording industry is actually putting it in to practice. The diversity and quality of the music being enjoyed by British music fans is directly attributable to the amount being invested by record companies."