BMG Is A Top Five Player In UK Records After Strong First Quarter

BMG Chrysalis UK has jumped up the UK record industry rankings after a strong first quarter, led by the latest albums from The Charlatans, alt-J and Jack Savoretti. BMG ended the quarter as fifth biggest “corporate group” in the UK albums market, according to Official Charts Company numbers, with its 2% marketshare making it as big as numbers six and seven put together.

Some of its growth was contributed by its acquisition last year of Union Square Music and Infectious Music, but the combined BMG/USM/Infectious sold just over 366000 albums in the first quarter of 2015, nearly 27% more than they sold separately in the same period of 2014. This increase came against the backdrop of the overall UK albums market declining 5.2% in the first quarter against the same period last year.

BMG’s biggest seller in the quarter was Modern Nature by The Charlatans, widely-acclaimed as one of the band’s greatest works yet.

BMG Chrysalis UK EVP Alexi Cory-Smith said, “It is still early days for BMG building its presence in the UK record market. Our share in records is barely a fifth of our share in music publishing, but this is very encouraging progress. We have a distinct positioning operating records and publishing under one roof, and both artists and songwriters seem to find our commitment to transparency and fairness increasingly attractive.”

News of BMG’s breakthrough in records comes as it is celebrating representing the current Official Number One Single ‘Hold My Hand’ by Jess Glynne and Official Number One Album The Day Is My Enemy by The Prodigy for music publishing.

Source: BMG