BMG Chrysalis was the UK’s fifth biggest record company ‘corporate group’ – in terms of album sales – in Q1 2015, boosted by LPs from The Charlatans, alt-J and Jack Savoretti.
According to Official Charts Company numbers, BMG’s albums unit sales put it behind Universal (No.1), Sony (No.2), Warner (No.3) and Ministry Of Sound (No.4).
The achievement came against the backdrop of the overall UK albums market declining 5.2% in the first quarter against the same period last year.
BMG says its 2% market share made it as big as No.6 (Beggars) and No.7 (Demon) combined.
This performance was clearly boosted by the acquisition last year of Union Square Music and Infectious Music, but there was evident organic growth, too: the combined BMG/USM/Infectious sold just over 366,000 albums in the first quarter of 2015, nearly 27% more than they sold separately in the same period of 2014.
“It is still early days for BMG building its presence in the UK record market… but this is very encouraging progress.”
Alexi Cory-Smith, BMG
BMG’s biggest seller in the quarter was Modern Nature by The Charlatans.
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.”
BMG’s publishing company currently represents the UK’s official 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.Music Business Worldwide
