12 MusicWeek 20.09.13
BUSINESSANALYSISA&R IN Q2 2013 EDITORIAL
Bastille storm to platinum status as other new talent looks to follow
OUTSIDE THE REALITY TV crowd, brand new acts struggle to get much of a look-in during the make-or-break last few months of the year. However, matters may be a little different this year with hotly-tipped London Grammar and The Strypes setting the pace last weekend by scoring instant top five albums and the likes of John Newman and Haim joining X Factor winner James Arthur with Q4 debuts. All these arrivals should be warmly welcomed in a year in
which so far just one UK-signed act – Bastille – has managed to sell more than 300,000 copies of a 2013-issued debut album, although Rudimental and Passenger will get there very soon. At this point in the calendar in 2012 the market had already been blessed by two huge domestically-signed breakthroughs
“The Arctic Monkeys result fulfills our prediction they would be Glastonbury’s biggest retail winners”
with Emeli Sandé and Lana Del Rey each having shifted more than half-a-million copies of their debuts and these would finish up as respectively the first and fourth biggest artist albums of the entire year. One big factor in Bastille being the only debuting UK platinum act of the year to date has been a shrinking albums market in which at certain points in 2013 only around 5,000 sales have been needed to breach the weekly Top 10. To further emphasise this point, Britain’s Got Talent pair Richard & Adam spent an impressive four weeks at No.1 with their debut album in August, the longest uninterrupted chart-topping sequence since Adele, but it has only helped them deliver around 100,000 sales. There are some positives, though, and one is the re- emergence of the independent sector as a real dynamic force for UK talent that can make a sizable commercial contribution to the albums market. As our A&R analysis opposite shows, in Q2 the indies accounted for more sales of the period’s leading UK- sourced albums than anyone other than Universal and that strength has continued into the current quarter with three of the top four artist albums last week by Arctic Monkeys, London Grammar and Goldfrapp all being independent titles. The third biggest seller – The 1975’s eponymous debut – was a joint release between Universal and indie Dirty Hit, while Nettwerk’s Passenger was at No.8. That is some going at a time of the year when the market traditionally starts shifting more towards the majors because of the sheer number of superstar albums they are pumping out. The Arctic Monkeys result is particularly satisfying and fulfills a prediction in our post-Glastonbury analysis a couple of months ago that the band would ultimately be the festival’s biggest retail winners. Debuting at No.1 with each of their first five albums is incredible enough, but in a still-declining market they last week managed to sell more copies of AM than their previous two studio sets managed week one. It yet again demonstrated a public appetite for buying albums rather than just single tracks remains, providing there is something out there to excite them.
Paul Williams, Head of Business Analysis Do you have views on this column? Feel free to comment by emailing
paul.williams@intentmedia.co.uk
www.musicweek.com
PASSENGER PUTS INDIES IN DRIVING SEAT
A&R BY PAUL WILLIAMS
I
ndependent labels became the second biggest source of frontline domestic albums in Q2 after an A&R shift from the majors. Nearly one in four of the leading current albums
by UK-signed or A&R’d acts sold over the three months in the UK came from an indie, putting the sector behind only Universal, according to exclusive Music Week research. Nettwerk act Passenger’s All The Little Lights,
Stereophonics’ Graffiti On The Train on their own Stylus label via Ignition and Texas with their PIAS Recordings-issued The Conversation were among the top indie album sellers during the quarter as non-majors accounted for 23.9% of the sales of the period’s 100 biggest-selling UK-sourced albums. This compared to 15.1% in Q1 and 15.9% in the equivalent quarter last year. Universal, whose UK A&R standing has been
hugely boosted by acquiring Virgin Records through its EMI takeover, continued to rule in Q2 with a 36.0% share of the leading albums by UK- signed or A&R’d acts, based on Official Charts Company data. Our calculations exclude greatest hits albums or any studio efforts more than two years old when the quarter began. However, despite now having Virgin under its
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Virgin top singles and albums label for UK A&R in Q2 with highlights including Emeli Sandé, Bastille and Naughty Boy Indies only second to Universal among top UK-sourced albums of the quarter with Nettwerk’s Passenger their top seller Universal has the three leading album companies for UK A&R: Virgin EMI, Polydor and Island Sony’s singles A&R share dips sharply, but Warner’s rises mainly because of Rudimental Nettwerk top indie album label for UK A&R with Stereophonics’ Stylus second
control and therefore a roster including big Q2 album sellers Emeli Sandé and Bastille, the market leader actually saw its sales share of the top UK- sourced albums fall between quarters and year-on- year. In the first three months of the year it commanded a 44.0% share and in Q2 2012 42.7% with its decline partially down to a lack of big new UK albums entering the market. Its few highlights included Disclosure’s PMR/Island debut Settle and Frank Turner and his Xtra Mile label moving from the indie sector to Polydor for his new album Tape Deck Heart, but it could still rely on a number of already-established releases to clock up further big numbers, including the Virgin debuts Our Version Of Events by Emeli Sandé and Bad Blood by
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