The British are coming...slowly but surely enough as the nation's music industry increased its hold on the American album sales market during 2014 thanks to new releases from One Direction, Coldplay, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and more. Last year's sales were a significant increase in market share compared to 2013, according to the British Phonographic Institute.
Nearly one-in-eight records bought by American consumers came from a British artist during the year (actual percentage 12.2 percent), up from 10.4 percent during 2013. That also marks the fourth consecutive year in which the UK landed at least 10 percent of American album sales. What does that mean in terms of actual sales figures? Nielsen Soundscan reports that there were 257 million albums sold in the United States last year, meaning that 31.35 million British albums were sold. Compare that with around 30.1 million British albums sold during 2013. So yes, although record sales from UK acts have increased in sales from year-to-year, they haven't exactly bucked the overall trend of decreasing album sales.
Among the leaders were Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour—which may place high for 2015 as well thanks to continued sales success—which placed as the no. 3 bestselling album of 2014, while One Direction's Four gave it the no. 9 place on overall album sales.
"British artists well and truly flew the flag in the world's biggest and most competitive music market last year," said Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive. "The sensational achievements of Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, One Direction and the entire 'Class of 2014' demonstrate once again that the U.K.'s music industry is a world-beater."
The United States doesn't exactly have to worry about its clout in the music market however. The BPI curiously forgot to include statistics on what percentage of albums bought in the UK during 2015 were by American acts.
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