14MusicWeek 13.07.12
BUSINESSANALYSISQ2SALES T
MARKET SHARES BY PAULWILLIAMS
he pain of Q2’s double-digit drop in album sales was not equally shared among record companies with Universal experiencing only
a modest year-on-year fall and EMI actually increasing its numbers. As the overall market slipped by 12.7% annually
between April and June, there were diversely mixed fortunes endured by the four majors as Universal and its takeover target EMI’s relatively robust performances were contrasted by unit sales drops of more than 20% for both Sony andWarner. Universal sold a relatively modest 270,000 fewer
full- and mid-price albums in the quarter compared to the same period the year before, a drop of 4.3%, reflected by it providing six of the 10 biggest artist
sellers.These included Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded by NickiMinaj, Jessie J’sWho You Are and Strangeland by Keane, all released by Island whose co-presidentTed Cockle is satisfied at 2012’s mid-way point. “Certainly we’ve been very happy with the way
records like Rizzle Kicks and NickiMinaj have carried
on.There certainly hasn’t been the volume in the market anybody would like, but albums can stay around a bit longer if they’ve got a collection of hits on them,”he says. Universal’s big successes also included Polydor
act Lana Del Rey’s BornTo Die andMercury’s Rihanna albumTalkThatTalk,while it also shared with EMI the top album overall,Now! 81,which shifted 641,783 copies, or nearly three-and-half times as many copies as its nearest challenger. All this helped the major’s market share rise
year-on-year from 29.9% to 33.5%, leaving it double the size of second-placed Sony,which lost more than 1 million non-budget album sales compared to the same period last year as its share dropped from 18.0% to
15.3%.This represented a 27.6% decline, the sharpest unit sales fall among the majors, and this was reflected by it having no titles among the quarter’sTop 10 artist albums with RCA act Paloma Faith its highest-placed act in 14th place with FallTo Grace.However, it continued to deliver on compilations where it followed having Q1’s top seller with BeMy Baby with its joint venture with Rhino,Keep Calm And Relax,which sold 140,000 copies and became the sector’s second top seller behind only Now! 81. EMI moved ahead ofWarner in Q1 and it
stretched its lead to 2.8 percentage points in the following quarter after contradicting the market trends by growing its sales of full- and mid-price albums by
3.5%.This took its market share up to 14.4%, less than a point behind Sony,with its Now! 81 success accompanied by Virgin act Emeli Sande claiming the period’s second top artist seller with Our Version Of Events and good business for Coldplay and David Guetta’s latest albums. “We have started this year incredibly well,” says
EMIMusic UK CEO Andria Vidler. “Katy Perry and David Guetta are still incredibly strong.Emeli Sande has been amazing and Coldplay have had strong album and singles sales. I’m really proud we are delivering across the spectrum with development acts, superstar acts, international acts into the UK and compilations.” Warner further went into reverse in the quarter as unit sales dropped year-on-year by 22.7% and its
UK 44.5% (35%) US 37.5% (49%)
EUROPE 7% (10%) OTHERS 10% (6%)
TOP 100 SINGLES BY GENRE
POP 45% (38%)
CONTEMPORARY URBAN 25% (39%) DANCE 18% (17%) ROCK 9% (5%)
COUNTRY 1% (0%)
MOR/EASY LISTENING 1% (0%) REGGAE 1% (1%)
TOP 100 SINGLES BY ARTIST NATIONALITY
www.musicweek.com
TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY GENRE
SINGLES MARKET SHARE (%) SINCE Q2 10
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
0 5
Q210 Q310 Q410 Q111 Q211 Q311 Q411 Q112 Q212
UNIVERSAL SONY WARNER EMI INDEPENDENTS
POP 42% (35%) ROCK 33% (30%)
CONTEMPORARY URBAN 13% (15%) MOR/EASY LISTENING 4% (5%) DANCE 3% (2%) OTHERS 5%
TOP 100 ARTIST ALBUMS BY ARTIST NATIONALITY
SINGLES SHARE Universal 35.3% Sony 19.6%
Warner 15.8% EMI 12.2%
Ministry of Sound 1.3% XL Beggars 1.2% Demon 0.3% Domino 0.3% Infectious 0.1% Union Square 0.1%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
UK 50.2% (48.4%) US 36.8% (37.2%)
EUROPE 5% (8.3%) OTHERS 8% (6%) N/A 1%
market share dropped to 11.6%, despite the continuing efforts of Ed Sheeran whose Asylum/Atlantic debut + sold another 150,000 copies in the quarter. Having to compete with Adele’s record-breaking
2011 numbers meant XL Beggars specifically and the independents generally suffered steep year-on- year declines.XL Beggars was down 64.7% having sold 1 million fewer albums compared to the same
period last year and the indies collectively were down 20.9%, although without Adele’s sales XL Beggars’drop is 11.5% and the independents 4.1%. XL Beggars remained top albums independent
with a 3.2% share, not least because Adele’s 21 finished as top artist title yet again but also because of new albums from JackWhite and Alabama Shakes,whileMinistry of Sound was second. Ministry’s compilation sales were virtually flat
year-on-year, but there were gains here for three of the majors as Sony’s numbers rose 28.3% and Universal and EMI were both up 5.8%.However, Warner’s sales slipped by 45.5%, leaving it with just 4.2% of the sector, having had 7.8% 12 months earlier and 9.3% in the second period of 2010.
SINGLES FOCUS BLOCKBUSTER SALES KEEP MARKET HEALTHY
RIGHT Singles sensation: Carly Rae Jepsen was front runner in Q2, selling nearly 850,000 copies of Call Me Maybe
“To have so many tracks
selling hundreds of thousands of copies
suggests the appetite for the hits is really strong and it’s
making it incredibly
difficult to break into the top flight” TED COCKLE, ISLAND
THE SINGLESMARKET grew almost twice as fast in Q2 as the previous quarter as brand new acts dominated the biggest sellers. Two of them– Carly Rae Jepsen and
Fun – sold 1.5million downloads combined of their chart-topping tracks across the threemonths, helping sales expand by 8.3% year-on-year to another
record high of 46.9million units. This compared to a Q1 increase of 4.4%, while at 2012’smidway point sales were up 6.3% at 93.6million. Interscope/Polydor-signed Rae Jepsen
and Atlantic/Fueled By Ramen’s Fun led an impressive haul of six debut acts among the quarter’s top seven sellers as CallMeMaybe sold an unrivalled
845,938 copies andWe Are Young featuring JanelleMonae shifted 669,623 units. “The enormous numbers is pleasing to
see,” says Island co-president Ted Cockle whose company was behind four of the period’s half-dozen top sellers with hits by Alex Clare, Gotye featuring Kimbra, Nicki Minaj and Tulisa. “To have somany tracks selling hundreds of thousands of copies suggests the appetite for the hits is really strong and it’smaking it incredibly difficult to break into the top flight.” Both Rae Jepsen and Fun’s tallies were
more than LMFAO’s Interscope/Polydor- issued Party Rock Anthemshifted in the same period last year when it topped the quarter-end chart. However, while another 18 releases sold 200,000 plus units, nothing could come anywhere near competing with those two hits’ totals. As a result there was a sizable gap of
more than 280,000 units between their two blockbusters and the rest of the singlesmarket, while the period’s Top 10 sellers collectively sold 0.3% fewer copies
All figures in brackets in these charts refer to Q2 2011 Source: Music Week research/OCC data
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