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Record of the Day

BRITISH ARTISTS DOMINATE UK ALBUMS MARKET IN 2011

06 Feb 2012

Adele boosts share of British artist albums in UK market to 52.7% - the highest since 1997
British acts regain ground in singles market, coming in just behind US on 42.6%

British artists accounted for 52.7% of the overall UK artist album market in 2011 – a fifteen-year high and up from 2010’s tally of 48.9%, according to a new analysis by the BPI based on Official Charts Company sales data.

It was an extraordinary year for Adele, whose 21 became the biggest selling album of the 21st Century. However, even without her sales British artists would still have accumulated their biggest share of the market since 2007 with albums from Coldplay, Jessie J, Ed Sheeran, Amy Winehouse and Olly Murs all selling between 500,000 and 1m copies during the year.

56 of the top 100 artist albums came from British artists. These ranged from acts on their first or second albums – Rumer, The Overtones, Hugh Laurie, Plan B, The Vaccines, Katy B, Rizzle Kicks, Professor Green and Florence + The Machine – to those that are well established like Will Young, PJ Harvey and Kasabian.

Big sellers from Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga and Cee Lo Green saw US artists take around a third (32.7%) of UK album sales, their lowest share since 1999. Canada took the third largest share, 4.5%, with successes from Michael Buble, Drake and Justin Bieber leading the way. Barbados took fourth with 2.3%, with its share single-handedly delivered by Rihanna. Other countries to boost their shares included France, mainly due to David Guetta, and Italy as a result of strong sales from Andrea Bocelli.

In the UK singles market, British acts increased their overall share to 42.6% in 2011, with big selling tracks from Adele, Jessie J and Ed Sheeran helping to achieve the best domestic performance since 2009. Despite this, American artists accounted for 43.8% of all singles sold in the UK during 2011 and five of the year-end Top 10, retaining a slender lead over their British rivals for the third year in succession. Rihanna’s singles success helped ensure her native Barbados moved into third place, with David Guetta helping France more than double its share to 2.4%.

Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said, “A string of great albums by British artists has delivered the strongest performance in the domestic albums market since the days of Brit Pop and the Spice Girls in 1997. 44 of the top 100 singles in 2011 were from British acts, including a string of 11 consecutive No.1 singles.

“Despite a challenging market, independent and major labels in the UK have kept the faith and continued to invest hundreds of millions in British talent. This success at home should provide a springboard for continued international success.”

Record of the Day