Iron Maiden put pedal to the metal on road to economic recovery

In a London Stock Exchange report, Iron Maiden LLP has been identified among the UK’s fastest growing music firms. Not only does their music provide unrivalled joy to heavy metal fans, Iron Maiden may now be actively easing the country out of a recession. In a report published on Friday by the London Stock Exchange, entitled 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain, the band has been named as one of the UK’s fastest growing music firms. Iron Maiden LLP, the group’s holding company, is one of six music companies outperforming other businesses in the sector. Others include the music app Shazam, Kobalt Music Group and the production music library Audio Network.

Using billions of real-time data from sources such as email traffic, financial transactions, PCs on the web and office space, Iron Maiden are reported to fall into the £10-20m earning bracket. Their financial success is attributed to their ever-expanding global fanbase, especially online.

According to Musicmetric, in the 12 months ending 31 May 2012, the band attracted more than 3.1 million social media fans; during the course of their Maiden England world tour, which ran from June 2012 to October 2013, their fanbase grew by 5 million online fans, with their popularity increasing markedly in South America.

“Iron Maiden’s BitTorrent data suggests Brazil is a huge driver of fans – and given Brazil is one of the biggest file sharing nations on the planet, this is a strong indicator of popularity,” said Greg Mead, CEO and co-founder of Musicmetric.

“With their constant touring, [the] report suggests Maiden have been rather successful in turning free file-sharing into fee-paying fans. This is clear proof that taking a global approach to live touring can pay off, and that having the data to track where your fan bases lie will become ever more vital.”

All the companies on the unranked list, which traverses more than 100 sectors, have revenue between £6m and £250m. BrewDog, Moonpig and Hunter Boot Ltd are also among the 1,000.

Source: The Guardian