British acts blitz North American record market

Superstars as Adele, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith are helping British acts claim their biggest share of the North American record market, according to new figures from the trade association British Phonographic Industry (BPI). 

"The drumbeat of British music success in North America just keeps getting louder," said BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor. 

Brit club and radio Pete Tong has previously exclaimed, “This is just a fantastic time for British music. Britain is a great melting pot and it just keeps producing fantastic music.”

Last year, Brit acts made up one in six artist albums bought in the US, making up a 17.6% share of the US album market, an impressive rise from 12.2% in 2014. That figure was a mere 7% in 2007.

The BPI has only collated these figures since 2003. But it suggests the current British invasion of the US is bigger than the one in the ‘60s when The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Kinks were part of the juggernaut.

This time, it is led by Adele whose 25 album has sold eight million Stateside. Ed Sheeran’s second album x shifted 2 million of its global 3.5 million sales in America. Similarly, Sam Smith’s The Lonely Hour, which has shifted 8.5 million around the world, sold 2.228 million copies in the US as of December 2015. 

According to the BPI’s Geoff Taylor, not only have these superstars “become part of the music mainstream in both the US and Canada – as popular as any home-grown talent” but “their sustained success has opened the door to a new generation of UK artists coming through."

British labels tend to also invest more in finding and breaking their acts than most other countries, he also points out.

Other Brit acts making their mark ion the other side of the Atlantic last year were Coldplay, One Direction, Florence and the Machine, Mumford & Sons, Muse, Bring Me The Horizon, Ellie Goulding, Coldplay, Iron Maiden, Disclosure, David Gilmour, Chvrches, Bullet For My Valentine and Duran Duran.

In the singles market, Brits accounted for 12.9% of sales, vastly helped by Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk being the most downloaded track with 5.5 million and the second most streamed song of 2015. Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud and Adele’s Hello also featured in the year-end top 10 singles chart.

British music’s achievements were greater in Canada where it constituted one in five albums. It counted for 22% of the country’s total album sales (excluding soundtracks and compilations), up from 15.3% in 2014. UK artists accounted for almost 15% of track streams, with Uptown Funk the most streamed song.

John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary, said: “Britain is a hive of creative talent so it’s no surprise that our UK artists are continuing to make a huge impact on the North American music market. Not only are the likes of Adele and Sam Smith inspiring whole new generations with their success overseas, but they’re flying the flag for Britain by showcasing our creativity and contributing more than £2 billion (A$3.9 million billion) to our economy through exports.”

Analysts say that one of the reasons for the excitement over British music is that the current acts are hungry for success and willing to work hard for it. Britpop of twenty years ago remained essentially a home explosion as Oasis and Blur never really bothered if they translated to North Americans ears or not. 

Other reasons cited are US Top 40’s move in the past five years to predominantly pop than R&B and hip hop, and the internet providing an alternative to US fans discovering acts bubbling under on the other side of the pond.