New research reveals huge success of British music industry

08 February 2016 - Press release

·         Strong performance of UK music industry helps fuel growth of global currency business Centtrip

New analysis⁽¹⁾ from global currency business Centtrip reveals 30% of the best-selling albums worldwide in 2015 belonged to British artists, selling a staggering 33.5 million copies combined. This figure is up 7% on 2014and demonstrates the growing success of the UK music industry on a global stage⁽²⁾.

Further analysis shows 2.7% of Britain’s richest 1,000 are in the music industryand have a combined worth of 19.3 billion⁽³⁾. In fact, Warner Music Group owner Len Blavatnik is Britain's richest man with a £13.17bn fortune. When looking at the wealthiest musicians in the UK, household names such as Adele, Robbie Williams and Sir Paul McCartney have all significantly increased their wealth over the past year.

In total, Britain’s music millionaires are worth a whopping £24.6 billion⁽⁴⁾. Furthermore, their combined wealth has increased by 18% - or £3.76 billion – since 2014.

The huge success of the UK music industry and its growing reputation worldwide is fuelling Centtrip’s strong international growth. Indeed existing Centtrip clients currently account for over half of British music millionaire’s wealth at over £13.5 billion, based on the Sunday Times Rich List data.

British artists in the top selling 40 albums globally in 2015

Rank	Artist	Album	Copies sold
1	Adele	25	14,970,000
3	Ed Sheeran	X	4,248,000
4	Sam Smith	In The Lonely Hour	3,388,000
8	Coldplay	A Head Full Of Dreams	1,813,000
9	One Direction	Made In The A.M.	1,792,000
14	Mumford & Sons	Wilder Mind	1,356,000
20	Muse	Drones	1,100,000
22	James Bay	Chaos And The Calm	1,038,000
23	Florence & The Machine	How Big How Blue How Beautiful	1,029,000
28	One Direction	Four	946,000
36	George Ezra	Wanted On Voyage	895,000
37	Adele	21	889,000
Total			33,464,000

Dan O’Neill, Head of New Business, Centtrip said: “As a nation we should be proud to have some of the the best and most successful artists in the world. Not only do they make incredible music, they also make a huge contribution to the UK economy through jobs and revenue.”

“The life of a musician involves a great deal of foreign travel – not just for the artist but for their supporting team. However, over the course of 2015 Sterling fell 5.36% against the US Dollar and rose 5.45% against the Euro⁽⁵⁾. This level of fluctuation in FX markets means that many of our clients – especially those who spend or earn a lot abroad – have been using the account to lock in rates that they believe to be attractive exchange rates.”

Centtrip customers pay one fixed annual fee of £10 and 0.5% of the value of funds loaded to their account.  Thereafter, they can convert across 14 currencies, free of any spread, as often as they want direct from the live market with 0% authentic rates. 

Customers can manage their accounts via a smartphone app or online through a multi-currency travel account 24/7.  The prepaid currency card allows customers to carry significantly higher balances compared to £5,000 or £6,000 for most prepaid currency cards(4).

In addition to spread free exchange rates, no charge for point-of-sale transactions in the UK or abroad and a fixed international ATM fee of £1.60.  The Centtrip card also offers the convenience and confidence of the MasterCard® brand accepted at over 35 million locations and 2.1 million ATMs worldwide.