MUMBAI: The UK music industry generates employment for over one lakh people, out which 69,300 are musicians, composers, songwriters and lyricists. Interestingly, the second largest employment comes from the growing sector of live music in the country, which has increased by 16 per cent from 2013, followed by others like music producers, recording studios and staff, recorded music, music publishing and music representatives. The total music industry GVA contribution stands at £4.1 billion, as per the recent report ‘Measuring Music’ 2015.
UK Music chief executive Jo Dipple said, “While the final figures are impressive, the UK Music survey of musicians revealed that 35 per cent of them are not paying into pension schemes, and 21 per cent of them had undertaken work for free during the past year with the aim of furthering their career. The varying roles, contributions and careers of musicians and songwriters are showcased in a series of case studies in this report. UK Music will continue to work for the best possible future for every part of our varied and stunningly diverse industry.”
The industry generates half of its revenue from exports, which is reported to be £2.1 billion, and from it, 17 per cent comes from recorded music exports. However, the revenue through export has witnessed a fall by 0.1 per cent in 2014 compared to 2013. Yet again, the major contributor here comes from musicians, composers, songwriters and lyricists which stand at £926 million. Globally, acts like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and One Direction, created a huge impact, which also reflected in the growth of the UK music industry. One in seven artist albums sold across the globe in 2014 was by a British act.
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Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport MP John Whittingdale said, “Our artists continue to dominate the global charts – and shows from the Royal Ballet and Rod Stewart to the LSO and Status Quo, sell out concerts across the globe. In fact, many people around the world first learn about this country through one of our bands.”
The investment by label and publishers which is somewhere around £0.5billion, makes UK the second largest provider of musical repertoire in the world. This investment by labels in areas like A&R, marketing and promotions and music publishers (as advances) have supported the industry to grow further.
In 2012, the GVA for UK music industry stood at £3.5billion, and in 2013, the industry stood at £3.8billion. As per the report for 2013-2014, the overall GVA increased by 5 per cent.
The live space witnessed the fastest GVA and employment growth in 2014. Through music tourism, the UK music industry contributed £3.1 billion to the country’s economy, which accounts for almost 26.7 million visits made to live music events.
Commenting on the way the data was collected, BOP consulting chief economist Jonathan Todd said, “First, have previously defined UK songwriters and musicians by residency in the UK. However, this understates the economic contribution of UK musicians and songwriters. We have, therefore, applied all payments by PRS for Music to songwriters and PPL to performers to our model. This will include some payments to songwriters and performers who are not British. This will be more than compensated for by UK songwriters and performers who are not members of PRS for Music, but direct members of US or other societies.
Second, we have also updated the publisher figures to be consistent with the latest PRS for Music and MCPS distributions for the relevant years.
Finally, we restrict estimation of live music exports to expenditures at gigs or festivals, rather than all expenditures incurred in relation to these events, such as travel and transport, which we cover in our Wish You Were Here report.”
