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GVA of British music up 9% in 2013, says UK Music
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 17 September 2014
Cross-sector trade group UK Music has been busy counting once again, and reckons that the business of music made a contribution of £3.8 billion to the British economy in 2013, which is up 9% on the figures the group estimated for 2012 in its original report on such matters last December.
The top line stat from the ‘Measuring Music’ report is that the overall ‘gross value added’ of the music industry last year was up from £3.5 billion in 2012 to £3.8 billion. The industry supported in the region of 111,000 full-time jobs, with exports of £2.2 billion.
UK Music, the trade group of trade groups which brings together reps from the various strands of the music industry, taps into a number of sources for its ‘Measuring Music’ study, estimating what the various products and services sold by musicians and their many business partners generate.
According to the group’s maths, the music rights sector generated £1.15 billion, breaking down as £618 million through exploiting sound recording rights, £436 million by exploiting publishing rights and £102 million for the creation of recorded content. The live sector generated value of £789 million while, once again, it was the artist and songwriting community at large that generated the most revenues, pegged at £1.7 billion.
Commenting on the stats, UK Music boss Jo Dipple told reporters: “We all know how amazing British music is. Now we can put a figure to its value. Last year its contribution to our economy grew by 9%. This is a big deal. The music industry creates real jobs and real opportunities for young people”.
She went on: “‘Measuring Music’ provides us with the data to accurately show government and policy makers how important an industry we are to the UK economy. The young bearded kids in the pub, making a racket on a Friday night, might just turn out to generate more revenue for [the Treasury] than a car manufacturer. But they need support to get there”.
Defining what support, the UK Music CEO concluded: “We need a strong copyright framework and we need help to ensure the many legal music services we licence are given priority in online search results. Our SMEs need access to finance and support for skills and training to allow them to grow. And we need help to talk to young music fans about how to value the music they love. British music has a natural and world-leading creative advantage. UK Music is committed to helping government develop policies as good as the music we produce”.
