¨Brands pump more than £100m into the UK music industry

The British music industry made £104.8m last year, thanks to investment from UK brands. The likes of Relentless energy drink, Volkswagen and O2 helped ensure the 2012 figure was up by 6% on the year before, according to figures from PRS for Music and entertainment strategists FRUKT . Professor Green (Relentless), Avicii (Ralph Lauren) and Jay Z (Blackberry) have all collaborated with brands recently, in increasingly direct partnership as the music industry looks for new ways to increase revenue.

Artist sponsorship saw a 33% increase on the previous year, with Mark Ronson‘s Coca-Cola collaboration during the Olympics and Emile Sandé’s partnership with Mastercard at the Brit awards, helping to bring in over £4.5m. Elsewhere, digital campaigns brought in £10.4m, thanks to the launch of the new Spotify app, among other things.

The largest share of the market was seized by sponsored music events. Rihanna‘s Budweiser 777 tour and Blackberry’s Summer Daze were among the events that helped net over £33m.

Robert Ashcroft, the chief executive of PRS for Music, said: “Historically, sport was where big brands put their money, but the last 12 months have demonstrated the unique power of music to convey brand value and how the right partnership can benefit music lover, songwriter and business alike.”

Artists, especially independent ones, were once chastised for working with brands: bands were criticised just for licensing a track to an advert. However, with the traditional channels of record sales and live revenue falling, bands are increasingly willing to collaborate. However, Professor Green told the BBC that an element of caution is needed for an artist to retain their credibility. He said: “You can’t be financially driven. It becomes very obvious to people if you say yes to everything and you do things purely for the money despite not having any belief in what you’re endorsing.”

Source: The Guardian