14 MusicWeek 14.09.12
BUSINESSANALYSIS EDITORIAL
Tumbleweed abounded in Q2 – but the indies were Cooking up a treat
TALK ABOUT TEMPTING FATE. In our Q1 A&R write-up we got all excited about the decisions to roll out two blockbuster debuts – by Emeli Sandé and Lana Del Rey respectively – during what too often is a deathly quiet period for new releases. But then, as Q2 dawned, somebody turned off the tap. In fact, April to June was so tranquil for frontline new albums
you could almost hear the tumbleweed passing by. Even among the few UK-signed titles that did appear too many of them underperformed (sets by Cheryl, Marina & The Diamonds and Scissor Sisters spring to mind), while the only UK debut of any real commercial merit was Labrinth’s Electronic Earth. But beneath this inactive surface a vast number of independent labels of varying shapes and sizes were quietly making their presence felt. In all 20 different indie companies registered among the 100 top-selling, non-catalogue UK- sourced artist albums of the quarter and in some cases achieved new levels of success. Cooking Vinyl was an interesting case in point.
Martin Goldschmidt’s company has
“Cooking Vinyl has known big commercial highs before but in Q2 it had a spread of chart-bound releases like never before”
known big commercial highs before – not least with its tie-up with Prodigy’s Take Me To The Hospital label – but in Q2 it had a spread of chart-bound releases like never before. A good chunk of these came from British acts of varying vintage, most of whom had had previous form with the majors, but with Cooking Vinyl in Q2 achieved more-than-respectable early sales with brand new albums.
New releases by The Cult, The Enemy, Proclaimers and
Reverend & The Makers all cracked the weekly Top 40 in the quarter, while the same was achieved by Counting Crows from the US side of the business. Although no other independent outside XL Beggars could match the extent of Cooking Vinyl’s Q2 releases, there were some encouraging developments by plenty of indies in the quarter. They included Red Bull whose second album by Glasgow band Twin Atlantic became an instant Top 40 hit following its release in May and has since returned to the Official chart following support by Radio 1 and others. The rock theme continued with Infectious’s Alt-J whose An
Awesome Wave should now significantly build on the 40,000 copies already sold in the UK, given it was heavily predicted to be among the Barclaycard Mercury Prize nominees being announced this week as Music Week went to press. A year after Adele’s 21 ensured XL dominated our A&R
market shares, none of the indie releases mentioned here or others registering in Q2 has yet to come near to achieving really meaningful sales numbers. But in what was an extraordinarily uneventful release period
as far as the majors were concerned they all showed the diligent work being undertaken by other labels.
Paul Williams, Head of Business Analysis Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
paul.williams@intentmedia.co.uk 0
“At the heart of this rise for RCA was Paloma Faith who transferred across from Epic for the release of Fall To Grace and landed the quarter’s 13th top artist seller with 92,587 sales
CURRENT UK-SOURCED SINGLES TOP 10 POS ARTIST/ TITLE / LABEL
1 ALEX CLARE Too Close Island 2 TULISA Young AATW/Island 3 RUDIMENTAL FEAT. JOHN NEWMAN Feel The Love Asylum/Black Butter 4 CHERYL Call My Name Polydor 5 GARY BARLOW/COMMONWEALTH BAND Sing Decca 6 JESSIE J FEAT. DAVID GUETTA Laserlight Island/Lava 7 CALVIN HARRIS FEAT. NE-YO Let’s Go Columbia 8 COLDPLAY & RIHANNA Princess Of China Parlophone 9 CONOR MAYNARD Can’t Say No Parlophone 10 MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Primadonna 679/Atlantic
Q2 2012 TOP 10 SINGLES COMPANIES BASED ON UK SIGNINGS/A&R’d ACTS
ISLAND 26.7%
POLYDOR 11.3% ATLANTIC 11.2%
RCA 10.0% PARLOPHONE 9.0% VIRGIN 6.6% COLUMBIA 4.3%
MINISTRY OF SOUND 4.2% DECCA 3.9%
MERCURY 2.6% 5
1015202530 0 XL 5.8%
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REJUVENATED
On taking the helm, Colin Barlow was on a mission to re-energise RCA. His efforts are already bearing fruit as the label leaps up the Q2 rankings to challenge Island
QUARTERLY FOCUS BY PAUL WILLIAMS
C
olin Barlow’s (inset) bid to revitalise RCA’s UK roster had its first real positive
impact on Music Week’s A&R rankings in Q2 as his company became market leader Island’s closest challenger. When Barlow spoke to Music Week in June about his arrival at the Sony operation after 22 years at Universal he pulled no punches about what he saw was an RCA too reliant on its US megastars and reality show acts. Turning around a record company’s A&R
fortunes takes a very long time, but the RCA president will no doubt be encouraged that between April and June this year his team moved up to second place in Music Week’s league table ranking companies by their domestic A&R performance. RCA claimed a 12.3% share of sales of the
period’s Top 100 non-catalogue albums by UK- signed or A&R’d artists, finishing behind Island, which continued to head the rankings. At the heart of this rise for RCA, which finished
in fifth place in Q1, was Paloma Faith who transferred across from Epic for the release of her second album Fall To Grace and landed the quarter’s 13th top artist seller with 92,587 sales, according to the Official Chart Company. The same period also saw the delivery of
Electronic Earth, Labrinth’s debut set and unusually
CURRENT UK-SOURCED ALBUMS TOP 10 POS ARTIST/ TITLE / LABEL
1 ADELE 21 XL 2 EMELI SANDE Our Version Of Events Virgin 3 GARY BARLOW/COMMONWEALTH BAND Sing Decca 4 ED SHEERAN +Asylum 5 LANA DEL REY Born To Die Polydor 6 JESSIE J Who You Are Island/Lava 7 KEANE Strangeland Island 8 PALOMA FAITH Fall To Grace RCA 9 LABRINTH Electronic Earth Syco 10 BEN HOWARD Every Kingdom Island
Q2 2012 TOP 10 ALBUMS COMPANIES BASED ON UK SIGNINGS/A&R’d ACTS ISLAND 18.2%
RCA12.3%
POLYDOR 10.1% ATLANTIC 9.7%
DECCA 8.3% VIRGIN 7.3%
MERCURY 5.4% PARLOPHONE 5.8%
EPIC 3.4% 5
101520
Source: Official Charts Company/Music Week research
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