U.K. MARKETSHAREGATE: UPDATE

You might remember our friends over in Blighty getting into a tizzy about the way we reported their Q1 2016 marketshare numbers. Sony wanted the figures printed one way, Universal another. Since then, we’re glad to report they seem to have come to an agreement.

Sony’s favoured numbers were reportedly the industry standard way of reporting, as followed by the Official Charts Company and trade magazine Music Week, while Universal wanted to include budget releases.

According to a note in last week's Music Week, UMG seem to have got their way. Printed on 7/11, the feature details Q2 2016 sales and marketshare numbers and is preceded by a ‘Music Week’s methodology explained’ from Editor Mark Sutherland.

“Notice anything different about this quarter’s market share figures? That’s because, since we last reported on the state of play in the U.K. market, Music Week has been working with the Official Charts Company to better represent the current make-up of U.K. music consumption,” he explained.

That new methodology is said to be a result of the growing importance of streaming (that accounted for 39.1% of the whole U.K. music market in 2016). The mag will now use the AES (Album Equivalent Sales) metric as its headline figure. That comprises physical and digital album sales, track equivalent albums (where 1k streams = one album), “showing the total, identifiable recorded music market.” The figures for the albums market now also include budget albums for the first time.