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

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

17