BPI reports UK artists claimed 1 in 6 albums sold worldwide, but ad-based platforms are failing to deliver
The BPI reported today that UK artists in 2015 achieved a global market share of 17.1%, selling around 1 in every 6 albums, which is an 18-year high for the UK music industry.
The stats are contained in the BPI’s newly published Music Markets 2016 yearbook, and highlights the importance of music to the UK economy and as a key UK export.
The labels’ association assessment, however, is not entirely positive since in spite of this extraordinary performance by UK artists and an increase in overall music consumption, recorded music revenues were almost flat - growing by just 0.6% in 2015. The BPI actually reports that income from sales and music streaming dipped by 0.9% compared to 2014.
The organisation is keen to highlight that these numbers embody the “value gap” highlighted by music industry representatives, including the BPI’s, in recent months. Ad-supported services, with YouTube in the front seat, generated a fraction of the revenues brought in by on-demand subscription services - £24.4 million versus £146.1 million. Revenues generated (mostly) by YouTube were smaller than those generated by vinyl sales, which stood at 25.1 million.
According to the BPI’s Chief Executive Geoff Taylor, this is the clearest possible indication that ad-supported services (again, YouTube) need to start valuing music and stop using it as a commodity.
He states: “In 2015, UK fans streamed almost twice as many music videos as the year before; tens of billions more views. Yet artists and labels did not benefit from the increased demand for what they created. This is wrong. Music is precious – it’s not a commodity to be strip-mined for big data. And as we’ve seen time and again in the digital market, where music goes first, the rest of the content sector will follow. This problem requires urgent action by the EU, and our Government needs to take the lead in making sure it is tackled.”
YouTube is certainly under pressure here, as more and more artists, labels and business people join in the choir of those who think the service is under-paying artists. However, the issue is that artists are not yet ready to abandon YouTube because it is too good of a promotional channel.
Can the mounting pressure from artists and trade bodies prompt a review of the safe harbour systems that allowed YouTube to thrive both in Europe and the US? On the one hand, Europe is facing the prospect of Brexit, which would have calamitous effects on the Union. The exit of the UK from Europe could take years to negotiate. On the other hand the US is in the midst of the biggest political upset in recent memory, which means that there is unlikely to be any action to alter the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
However, the BPI is right to put the pressure on now: should Britain decide to stay in Europe in June, there may well be the bandwidth (and at that point, the goodwill) to listen to the UK Government’s demands on altering the safe harbour system. If the UK exits Europe its ability to influence EU decisions will end and at best the BPI will be able to hope for national is legislation tackling the issue for the UK only, provided that the government is not too busy trying to negotiate an exit that doesn't cripple the UK economy.
(Andrea Leonelli)