UK artists now account for the biggest share of albums sold in Britain since the days of Britpop in 1997, the BPI has announced.
The likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, George Ezra and Paolo Nutini helped British acts account for more than half (53.5 percent) of all music sold in the UK in 2014, according to Official Charts Company (OCC) data.
According to the BPI, Brit acts last achieved this success in 1997 with a 58.3 percent sales share. The Spice Girls, Oasis, the Prodigy, Radiohead and the Verve were among some of the biggest sellers of the time.
Geoff Taylor, BPI and BRIT Awards chief executive, said: ‘From the genre-bending creativity of Ed Sheeran to the fresh new sounds of Sam Smith and George Ezra, the powerful vocals of Paloma Faith and the stadium-filling anthems of Coldplay, new British music has dominated the charts at home and is breaking through all around the world.
‘The strongest performance by UK artists since the Britpop era shows that this country has great strength not only in talented musicians, but also in innovative record labels that invest in nurturing their careers.’
Previous BPI and OCC figures revealed that the entire top 10 best-selling albums in the UK in 2014 were by British artists.
The likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, George Ezra and Paolo Nutini helped British acts account for more than half (53.5 percent) of all music sold in the UK in 2014, according to Official Charts Company (OCC) data.
According to the BPI, Brit acts last achieved this success in 1997 with a 58.3 percent sales share. The Spice Girls, Oasis, the Prodigy, Radiohead and the Verve were among some of the biggest sellers of the time.
Geoff Taylor, BPI and BRIT Awards chief executive, said: ‘From the genre-bending creativity of Ed Sheeran to the fresh new sounds of Sam Smith and George Ezra, the powerful vocals of Paloma Faith and the stadium-filling anthems of Coldplay, new British music has dominated the charts at home and is breaking through all around the world.
‘The strongest performance by UK artists since the Britpop era shows that this country has great strength not only in talented musicians, but also in innovative record labels that invest in nurturing their careers.’
Previous BPI and OCC figures revealed that the entire top 10 best-selling albums in the UK in 2014 were by British artists.
