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PRS for Music Chief Executive Robert Ashcroft
Despite tough trading conditions within the UK music industry and a bleak economic outlook, it has been quite a year for our songwriters, composers and publishers. Our members have enjoyed tremendous success both at home and overseas, further pushing the boundaries for UK music around the world.
Adele, our biggest export, has sold more than 3.2m copies of her second album 21 at home and smashed records in countries around the world, including the highly competitive US market. Florence & the Machine’s second album Ceremonials has also made waves in the UK and abroad, reaching number one in the Billboard tastemaker’s chart.
Meanwhile, digital album sales have already beaten last year’s record, helped by impressive releases from Coldplay and newcomers Jessie J and Ed Sheeran. Three in every 10 albums are now bought digitally in the UK, with album downloads accounting for more than 28 percent of the market.
Although digital sales cannot offset the rapid and continuous decline in recorded music, we must embrace the digital market and continue to push for new licensing deals across these platforms. We have licensed two cloud services to date, are in discussions with Apple for their innovative iCloud service and negotiating with other providers. The industry must get behind the digital market too, with decisive action to curb piracy.
Within the live sector we have plenty to celebrate. Take That’s Progress tour this year was a phenomenal success. It was seen by a staggering 1.8m people and brought in licensing revenues of more than £2.5m. They alone will account for around 13 percent of our 2011 live music revenues. U2’s 360 tour ran from June 2009 to July 2011 and saw the band perform 100 concerts. The tour sold more than seven million tickets and became the highest-grossing tour in history at £467m.
We are also pleased to announce that retail chain JJB Sports has moved back to copyright music in 140 of its stores after it had switched to buyout music last year; a score for our licensing team.
We are delighted too that music will be a key part of the Olympic Games next year, during the ceremonies, related cultural activities and across the Olympic Park site. The organising group LOCOG has recognised the vital importance of music to the success of the 2012 Olympics and it will be an important showcase for our songwriter, composer and publisher members.
It is the continued strength of our members’ repertoire that is enabling us to forecast growth over the next five years; something I can assure you, having consulted some of my counterparts, is not the case for all collecting societies.
However, the difficult conditions within the music industry must not be underestimated; last year the UK music industry declined in value for the first time. Our research found that overall industry revenues declined by 4.8 percent to £3.8bn, down from £3.9bn in 2009.
Growth in the live music sector has slowed and, combined with a cautious online market, cannot make up for falling CD and DVD sales. Across the board, public performance sales are challenged by the state of the economy. Businesses continue to close and financial pressures mean many are looking at ways to cut their outgoings, having a knock-on effect on music licensing.
Although we are bombarded with bad news from the front line, I believe there is still strength at the heart of our industry. I’m sure you will agree, there is much to look forward to in 2012, but we must not rest on our laurels. We will continue to champion the strength of our members’ repertoire at home and overseas and look forward to supporting your innovation and creativity.
Despite tough trading conditions within the UK music industry and a bleak economic outlook, it has been quite a year for our songwriters, composers and publishers. Our members have enjoyed tremendous success both at home and overseas, further pushing the boundaries for UK music around the world.
Adele, our biggest export, has sold more than 3.2m copies of her second album 21 at home and smashed records in countries around the world, including the highly competitive US market. Florence & the Machine’s second album Ceremonials has also made waves in the UK and abroad, reaching number one in the Billboard tastemaker’s chart.
Meanwhile, digital album sales have already beaten last year’s record, helped by impressive releases from Coldplay and newcomers Jessie J and Ed Sheeran. Three in every 10 albums are now bought digitally in the UK, with album downloads accounting for more than 28 percent of the market.
Although digital sales cannot offset the rapid and continuous decline in recorded music, we must embrace the digital market and continue to push for new licensing deals across these platforms. We have licensed two cloud services to date, are in discussions with Apple for their innovative iCloud service and negotiating with other providers. The industry must get behind the digital market too, with decisive action to curb piracy.
Within the live sector we have plenty to celebrate. Take That’s Progress tour this year was a phenomenal success. It was seen by a staggering 1.8m people and brought in licensing revenues of more than £2.5m. They alone will account for around 13 percent of our 2011 live music revenues. U2’s 360 tour ran from June 2009 to July 2011 and saw the band perform 100 concerts. The tour sold more than seven million tickets and became the highest-grossing tour in history at £467m.
We are also pleased to announce that retail chain JJB Sports has moved back to copyright music in 140 of its stores after it had switched to buyout music last year; a score for our licensing team.
We are delighted too that music will be a key part of the Olympic Games next year, during the ceremonies, related cultural activities and across the Olympic Park site. The organising group LOCOG has recognised the vital importance of music to the success of the 2012 Olympics and it will be an important showcase for our songwriter, composer and publisher members.
It is the continued strength of our members’ repertoire that is enabling us to forecast growth over the next five years; something I can assure you, having consulted some of my counterparts, is not the case for all collecting societies.
However, the difficult conditions within the music industry must not be underestimated; last year the UK music industry declined in value for the first time. Our research found that overall industry revenues declined by 4.8 percent to £3.8bn, down from £3.9bn in 2009.
Growth in the live music sector has slowed and, combined with a cautious online market, cannot make up for falling CD and DVD sales. Across the board, public performance sales are challenged by the state of the economy. Businesses continue to close and financial pressures mean many are looking at ways to cut their outgoings, having a knock-on effect on music licensing.
Although we are bombarded with bad news from the front line, I believe there is still strength at the heart of our industry. I’m sure you will agree, there is much to look forward to in 2012, but we must not rest on our laurels. We will continue to champion the strength of our members’ repertoire at home and overseas and look forward to supporting your innovation and creativity.
