Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive officer (CEO), has labelled the Arts Council England’s Alan Davey ‘ill-informed and out of touch’ for criticising the music industry for failing to support emerging talent.
The Arts Council England's (ACE) CEO told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that major labels were guilty of wanting ‘talent to be delivered to them ready made … they're not prepared to take a long period of time investing in talent’.
However, Geoff Taylor responded in a statement to Music Week claiming that the global success of acts such as Adele and Mumford and Sons illustrated how the industry is doing the right thing when it comes to supporting new acts.
‘Alan Davey's remarks about the lack of risk-taking in pop music are ill-informed and out of touch. UK labels have invested £1bn over the last five years in new music. The results speak for themselves: five out of the top ten best-selling albums last year were from the UK.'
‘It is difficult to see that global breakthroughs such as Adele, Mumford and Sons, Emeli Sande, Ed Sheeran, Muse and Jessie J represent short-termism, or a failure to back talent. And huge successes such as One Direction who emerged from the X Factor should be celebrated,’ he explained.
Previous figures released by the BPI showed that British acts are doing well, particularly overseas. Sales of UK acts accounted for 13.7 percent of the US recorded music market in 2012 - the equivalent of one in every seven albums sold across the pond.
The comments follow the launch of the ACE-backed Momentum fund to help develop the careers of artists and songwriters in the UK.
Read the full story on the unveiling of the new fund.
The Arts Council England's (ACE) CEO told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme that major labels were guilty of wanting ‘talent to be delivered to them ready made … they're not prepared to take a long period of time investing in talent’.
However, Geoff Taylor responded in a statement to Music Week claiming that the global success of acts such as Adele and Mumford and Sons illustrated how the industry is doing the right thing when it comes to supporting new acts.
‘Alan Davey's remarks about the lack of risk-taking in pop music are ill-informed and out of touch. UK labels have invested £1bn over the last five years in new music. The results speak for themselves: five out of the top ten best-selling albums last year were from the UK.'
‘It is difficult to see that global breakthroughs such as Adele, Mumford and Sons, Emeli Sande, Ed Sheeran, Muse and Jessie J represent short-termism, or a failure to back talent. And huge successes such as One Direction who emerged from the X Factor should be celebrated,’ he explained.
Previous figures released by the BPI showed that British acts are doing well, particularly overseas. Sales of UK acts accounted for 13.7 percent of the US recorded music market in 2012 - the equivalent of one in every seven albums sold across the pond.
The comments follow the launch of the ACE-backed Momentum fund to help develop the careers of artists and songwriters in the UK.
Read the full story on the unveiling of the new fund.
