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BIGINTERVIEW 10


Scott Rodger on winning the X Factor account and a new breed of UK management house


PROFILE 18


Tastemaking indie label Black Butter on their big ambitions and a triumphant 2012


Ho, ho…oh


SALES n BY PAUL WILLIAMS


T


he gift of music at Christmas seems to be rapidly losing its appeal


with festive album sales shrinking by nearly a sixth in just 12 months. Around 2.7 million fewer


albums were sold in the first nine weeks of Q4 compared to the same period last year – a 12.9% annual drop. The top end of the artist


albums market is taking the fiercest battering, with sales of the quarter’s top 10 titles down 35.0% on a year ago, according to Official Charts Company data. Led by One Direction’s Take


Me Home, the 10 biggest artist sellers since the beginning of October 2012 had collectively sold around 2.0 million units by last weekend, more than 1 million fewer copies than the equivalent top Q4 releases sold over the same timeframe in 2011.


That fall has contributed to a


17.1% overall drop in the artist albums market as key new albums from the likes of Rihanna and Robbie Williams have failed to halt a double-digit drop that has blighted the sector all year. Up to the close of business


last Saturday, just four artist albums had sold more than 200,000 copies in the quarter, by Syco’s One Direction, Gentlemen Of The Road/Island’s Mumford & Sons, Virgin’s Emeli Sandé and Helium 3/Warner Bros’s Muse respectively, compared to nine last year and 11 in 2010 when Take That’s Progress album had already sold 903,826 copies by this stage. However, despite


artist albums sales struggling, the compilations


Parlophone value estimated at £300m+


If Universal sells Parlophone Label Group (PLG) in one chunk, it’s likely to cost any prospective buyer around $450m–$500m (£300m+). That’s according to sources


close to the bidding process for the assets group, which UMG is selling following the approval of its £1.2bn acquisition of EMI Music in September. PLG is the temporary home


for assets that Universal must divest, including Chrysalis, Mute Records, Sanctuary, EMI’s share in the Now! compilation and Parlophone itself - minus the Beatles catalogue. Music Week understands that


PLG is likely to be sold as one unit –minus Co-Operative music, another divested asset, which looks destined for PIAS.


However, the auction process


for PLG is yet to begin, and could still see the assets split up into separate bundles. Potential bidders for PLG,


which include Warner, Sony, BMG and Simon Fuller, are understood to be currently perusing details of the assets. A deal for PLG’s purchase is


on course to be completed by late March 2013.


‘Artist album sales are floundering at a time of year when the industry has always been guaranteed a boost’


07.12.12 £5.15 21 INTERVIEW


Imagem-signed Brit songwriter Steve Robson is at the top of two charts this week


FESTIVE PERIOD A LETDOWN IN 2012 FOR ARTIST ALBUMS MARKET – BUT NOT FOR COMPILATIONS


Compilation boost:Now! 83 and Radio 1 Live Lounge Vol.6


market is powering ahead, having grown by 7.2% in Q4 up to the end of last week. Some 3.9 million various artist albums have been sold in the quarter so far, up from 3.6 million a year ago. More than half a


million of those sales have come in just two weeks from EMI TV/UMTV’s


Now! 83, which is Q4’s overall top seller by some distance, outselling the One Direction album in second place by more than 200,000 units. The latest Now! release is


managing to better even the high numbers


accumulated by the series’


equivalent title – Now! 80 – in 2011, but the rise in compilation sales is being felt across the market. Its growing influence is illustrated by five of the


20 biggest album sellers this quarter being various


artists releases compared to just two in the corresponding period last year. While the turnaround in the


compilations market brings cause for optimism, artist album sales are floundering at a time of year when the industry has always been guaranteed a boost with shoppers buying albums as presents. That clearly still happens, but each Christmas far less than the year before. In Q4’s opening nine weeks, around 13.5 million CDs were sold, more than 3 million fewer than last year and down 6 million compared to 2010. This drop-off raises


fundamental questions about how much the industry can rely on a lift during the gifting season in future years as the physical market continues to slip and digital takes a greater share of album sales.


»


This Brit Awards 2013 Critics’ Choice nominees have been confirmed as AlunaGeorge (Island), Laura Mvula (RCA) and Tom Odell (Columbia). Invited industry participants


will be able to vote on which of the three should win the prize via the official Brits site from this Friday (December 7). The winner of the Critics’


Choice gong will be announced See Business Analysis on pages 14–15 Brit Critics’ Choice nominees


on Thursday, December 20. The winner of the last Critics’ Choice Award was Emeli Sande, who collected the gong at the Brit Awards 2012 in February. She has gone on to score the UK’s biggest-selling album of the year. The Brit Awards 2013


will take place at London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday, February 20.


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