02 Q1 2012 ALL CHARTS, GRAPHS AND DATA IN THIS REPORT ARE COPYRIGHT OF THE OFFICIAL CHARTS COMPANY


www.musicweek.com


Q1/2012


Extensive analysis from Music Week, based on Official Charts Company data


W


elcome to Music Week’s first extensive quarterly report into the UK recorded music market, brought to you in association with the Official Charts Company.


The aim of this three-monthly report is to look statistically at


the market in an in-depth way that is impossible to achieve over a few pages. Alongside analysing the headline figures, what you have here crunches further and deeper with a detailed look at what occurred in the past quarter by sector, genre, format and by the individual performances of record groups and distributors. Over the next 30 pages we will provide an overview of the


singles and albums markets for the first quarter of 2012, then examine specifically compilations, digital, vinyl and budget albums, catalogue and the top album sellers of Q1 by a range of genres ranging from pop, rock and dance to folk, heavy metal, classical and jazz and blues. Our singles coverage will also include an inspection of the market according to genre. This report further offers in-depth detail of the quarter’s


biggest sellers, including a comprehensive run-down of the 100 top singles and artist albums, with each release containing such information as label and corporate group and quarterly and cumulative sales. Then we conclude with a look at how the period played out from a market share perspective, examining one by one the performances of Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI, the independents and the leading distributors. We begin this journey in what was clearly a very challenging


period for the industry with the positives of rises in singles, compilations and digital album sales overshadowed by a 14.7% overall year-on-year fall for albums. Part of the backdrop to this was the market having to compete against a record-breaking first quarter 2011 for Adele, but there were many other issues to contend with, among them a massive 25.4% drop in the number of albums sold on CD in the period. But the quarter also witnessed the best opening three months for digital albums, another record Q1 for singles and compilations rising in the first


quarter of a year for the first time since 2007. Paul Williams, Head of Business Analysis


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Page 04 - 05 The albums market Page 06 - 07 The singles market Page 08 - 11 Top 100 artist albums of the quarter Page 12 - 15 Top 100 singles of the quarter Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22


Top 100 artist albums analysis Top 100 singles analysis Compilations Digital albums


Budget albums and vinyl Catalogue albums New albums


Page 23 - 25 Albums by genre Page 26 - 27 Singles by genre Page 28 Market shares Page 29 Page 30


Universal focus Sony focus


Page 31 Warner focus Page 32 Page 33 Page 34


EMI focus


Independents focus Distribution


SALES STATISTICS Q1 2012 Source: Official Charts Company


SALES PERIOD Q1 2012 Q1 2011


TREND % CHANGE


Q1 2012 Q1 2011


TREND % CHANGE


SINGLES


46,661,629 44,679,739


+4.4% CD ALBUMS


15,318,632 20,532,192


–25.4%


TOTAL ALBUMS 23,018,808


26,982,768 –14.7%


ARTIST ALBUMS 18,367,070


22,144,055 –17.1%


DIGITAL ALBUMS 7,615,583 6,365,856


+19.6%


COMPILATIONS 3,941,207


3,925,053 +0.4%


VINYL ALBUMS 75,500 70,634


+6.9%


‘UNMATCHED’ 710,531


913,660 N/A OTHER 9,093 14,086 –54.9%


All analysis in this report is the copyright of Intent


Music Week, Intent Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London N1 8LR Tel 020 7226 7246 Web www.musicweek.com / www.intentmedia.co.uk


Head of Business Analysis / report compiler Paul Williams Design and layout Ed Miller Nikki Thompson


CONTENTS


Music Week editor Tim Ingham Publisher Dave Roberts Managing director Stuart Dinsey


Media, and all charts, graphs and data in this report are copyright of the Official Charts Company. Any republication of this information is strictly forbidden. All rights are reserved.


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