1. The fact that Pop accounted for the top five sellers
of 2013 (three Now compilations and one album
apiece by One Direction and Emeli Sandé) was not
enough to stop Rock overtaking it at the top of the
share table. Some solid performances from new
releases mixed with continued demand for older
titles saw Rock edge ahead for the first time in
three years.
Pop and Rock continue to dominate the market as
a whole, although 2013 saw two MOR/Easy titles
break the year-end top 10, as opposed to the clean
Pop/Rock sweep achieved the year before. Michael
Bublé’s To Be Loved and Robbie Williams’s
Swings Both Ways were placed at six and seven
respectively, and played no small part
in bumping up MOR’s share to a four-year high
of 8.1%.
The improvement from MOR was not enough to
hold off the charge from Dance, however, which
scored its best result in eight years. Whereas five
Dance titles made the top 100 in 2012, 12 did so
in 2013, including big new artist releases from
Rudimental and Disclosure.
R&B endured another decrease in 2013 to record
its smallest share since 1995, with only five titles
in the top 100 classified within the genre. Classical
too saw its fortunes wane slightly, while Hip Hop
recorded a slight increase, due mainly to the
success of Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2.
ALBUM SALES BY GENRE (% UNITS)
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Rock 31.0 31.2 29.4 31.3 33.8
Pop 29.0 30.9 33.6 33.5 31.0
Dance 7.3 5.8 4.9 6.3 8.3
MOR/Easy 8.2 7.5 7.9 7.6 8.1
R&B 9.6 10.4 10.1 7.2 5.7
Hip Hop 4.3 4.2 3.4 3.5 3.6
Classical 3.2 3.5 3.3 3.7 3.2
Country 1.6 1.4 1.6 1.5 1.7
Jazz 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.3 1.3
Folk 1.4 1.3 1.6 1.4 1.2
Blues 0.7 0.6 0.9 0.9 0.9
Reggae 0.9 0.6 0.7 1.0 0.7
Children’s 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.2
World 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.2
Spoken Word 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
New Age 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100
Source: BPI based on Official Charts Company data
Sales by Type of Music – Albums
Rock returns to the top in 2013
Robbie Williams
Disclosure
Eminem
16
BPI YEARBOOK 2014
2. SALES BY TYPE OF MUSIC
SINGLES SALES BY GENRE (% UNITS)
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Pop 33.5 38.3 36.0 38.5 36.2
Rock 24.5 17.2 18.0 20.0 21.4
Dance 12.7 12.6 13.8 13.8 16.1
R&B 18.9 18.0 17.2 12.3 13.5
Hip Hop 8.8 12.2 10.2 10.7 8.6
MOR/Easy 0.7 0.8 1.4 1.5 1.6
Classical 0.1 0.1 1.2 0.9 0.7
Reggae 0.2 0.3 0.6 0.9 0.5
Country 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.5 0.5
Folk 0.1 0.1 0.6 0.4 0.3
Jazz 0.3 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.2
Other – 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.3
TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100
Source: BPI based on Official Charts Company data
STREAMS
BY GENRE (% VOL)
COMBINED SALES
AND STREAMS BY
GENRE (% VOL)
Pop remains the biggest genre by far in the singles
market although its share dipped slightly – as in
the albums market – in 2013. It has now accounted
for over a third of sales for five consecutive years
although no Pop titles featured in the top five of
2013, Katy Perry’s Roar being the highest-placed
at six.
Rock’s share increase continued in 2013, marking
three straight years of improvement. Passenger’s
Let Her Go was the genre’s top seller at number
four, with OneRepublic’s Counting Stars also
featuring in the top 10. Dance’s share of 16.1% was
its biggest since 2006, with two of the year’s top
three sellers (by Daft Punk and Avicii) attributed to
the genre. Over a quarter (26) of the top 100 singles
of the year were Dance tracks, up significantly on
the 18 present in 2012.
The biggest selling track of the year – Robin
Thicke’s Blurred Lines – helped lift R&B’s share
after a severe dip in 2012, while Justin Timberlake’s
Mirrors also featured in the 2013 top 10. Despite
big successes from artists such as Macklemore
& Lewis and Eminem, Hip Hop’s share slid to 8.6%,
almost five percentage points behind R&B. MOR/
Easy’s share held steady but Classical and Reggae
both saw demand slip slightly.
Interestingly, when the top 2,000 streams of the year
are analysed by genre type, Rock comes out on top.
The two most-streamed artists of the year – Arctic
Monkeys and Bastille – are both from the Rock
firmament, with the two acts alone accounting for a
hugely impressive 42 of 2,000 most-played tracks on
audio streaming services. Artists such as Imagine
Dragons and The Lumineers also scored places in
the top 10 tracks chart for the year.
Sales and Streams by Type of Music – Singles
Rock is the streamers’ choice in 2013
2013
Rock 34.6
Pop 27.7
Dance 13.7
R&B 11.3
Hip Hop 10.3
MOR/Easy 0.9
Folk 0.6
Reggae 0.4
Classical 0.1
Country 0.1
Jazz 0.1
100
2013
Pop 35.1
Rock 23.1
Dance 15.8
R&B 13.2
Hip Hop 8.9
MOR/Easy Listening 1.5
Classical 0.6
Reggae 0.5
Country 0.5
Folk 0.4
Jazz 0.2
World 0.1
100
Imagine Dragons
Source: BPI based on Official Charts Company data
Streaming base: top 2,000 streamed tracks
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