This article is more than 1 year old

Twenty somethings shocker for UK music sales

Despite that, annual BPI survey is surprisingly perky

Where does our money go?

Major labels took 81.4 per cent of album sales by share. The indies are a broad church: the largest indie is the Ministry of Sound/Hed Kandi label, which pumps out dance compilations, five of which sold over 100,000 copies in 2009. Daniel O'Donnell and Peter Andre are on independent labels...

Urban music makes up 27.5 per cent of digital sales, and 16.5 per cent of dance. Pop accounted for just 2.4 per cent but almost two thirds of all albums sold.

What it takes to get into the singles chart also changes yearly, in unexpected ways. The headline is that that the best-selling single sold fewer copies than ever. The best-seller in 2004 sold 4.1m copies, the best-seller last year shifted just 0.6m in all formats, the lowest ever recorded.

But seven years ago, shifting 2,250 copies in a week would get you into the Top 50. This fell to 1,400 in 2004. Now it’s risen to almost 5,000 a week. This is no ‘Long Tail’, the Tail is the 3m tracks that are never downloaded even once in a year, but it suggests a differently shaped head, if you like.

Anyone want to offer an explanation?

Universal Music Group took 33.4 per cent of the market; while no indie took more than 3 per cent, combined they take third place, with 18.6 per cent

In 2002, the No.1 sold on average 144,300 in a week, while 9,000 would get you in the Top 20. Last year the No.1 sold 92,900 per week on average, but more sales (over 12,000) were needed to get into the Top 20.

We should also note that the cost of the BPI statistical yearbook has risen 7.6 per cent since last year – it’s now seventy quid.

Finally, when analysed by region, some areas spend more than on music than others. The prosperous South East contributes more in revenue than its head count. Yorkshire and the North East contribute less. But Scotland, like London, spends more than average. Insert your favourite stereotype here.

Online piracy isn’t really the focus of the yearbook, but it does include the Harris survey figure that very few people (around 1 in 8) would change their P2P habits if they got a letter explaining legal alternatives. But 46 per cent would, if the ISP warned them of a technical counter-measure was forthcoming. Next year, for 12 months, hundreds of thousands of people (if not more) will receive the slightly pointless “educational” letters. Pointless because the legal alternatives seem to fairly well known, as the BPI agrees, and pointless from the music industry point of view because they don’t seem to discourage legal music consumption. The stamps still cost money, though, the cost to be borne 75 per cent by the music business and 25 per cent by ISPs.®

Bootnote

We should also note that the cost of the BPI statistical yearbook has risen 7.6 per cent since last year – it’s now seventy quid.

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