British music industry added £3.8bn to the UK economy in 2013

The British music industry contributed £3.8bn to the UK economy in 2013, according to an annual trade report. With the sector seeing a 9% growth over the year before, lobbyists called for a stronger national copyright framework.

The increase in overall music receipts can be traced to individual revenues by musicians, singers, composers, songwriters and lyricists, which rose more than 6% to £1.7bn, and live music sales, which rose almost 20% to £789m, according to trade body UK Music’s annual Measuring Music report. There were also increases in publishing and studio revenues, and a massive boom in UK music exports - up 57% to £2.2bn.

More than 110,000 people hold full-time jobs in the UK music industry, UK Music claimed, 67,000 of whom are professional musicians. But the news is not all good: revenues from recorded music fell by £16m last year, to £618m.

“The young bearded kids in the pub, making a racket on a Friday night, might just turn out to generate more revenue for HMT than a car manufacturer,” UK Music CEO Jo Dipple said in a statement. Besides emphasising the role of small business training, copyright law and anti-piracy education, Dipple asked for help ensuring “the many legal music services we license are given priority in online search results”.

Responding to UK Music’s industry figures, culture minister Sajid Javid declared the sector one of the country’s “biggest success stories”.

“Not only does [music] make a tremendous contribution to driving economic growth, but it plays a pivotal role in taking British culture to every corner of the globe,” he wrote in a press release. “One in every eight albums sold anywhere in the world is by a British artist, and I know that, with the ongoing support from government, this dynamic sector will continue to flourish and thrive.”