Indie is the new mainstream, a major new study suggests – with independent label acts such as BRITs record-breaker Raye now making up a third of all music sales.
There has been a leap in the popularity of independently-released recordings – outside the ‘Big Three’ music giants Sony, Universal and Warner – for the sixth year running, according to the BPI industry body.
Acts who have helped fuel this success also include punk era veterans The Damned, pop princess Kylie Minogue – while a vinyl revival has been credited to the likes of Taylor Swift as well as guitar groups such as Blur and the Arctic Monkeys.
Others highlighted in today’s All About The Music handbook include rappers Ren, Dave and Casisdead, double Mercury Music Prize-winner PJ Harvey 1990s chart-toppers The Prodigy and legacy acts such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
Four in ten people, when surveyed, picked vinyl as their preferred choice of format – continuing a trend which saw a 21st-century high of 6.5million LPs sold last year.
Raye won a record six BRIT Awards at this February’s 2024 ceremony – she is seen here performing at the Coachella festival in California last Saturday
n pop princess Kylie Minogue was given this year’s Global Icon prize at the BRITs
The Arctic Monkeys, frontted by Alex Turner – pictured performing at the Glastonbury Festival in June last year – were among the top 10 bestselling artists on vinyl last year
Punk veterans The Damned, seen here at Manchester Arena in June 2018, have also been highlighted in today’s newly-published annual yearbook by industry body the BPI
Independently-released music made up 29.2 per cent of Album Equivalent Sales, according to the British Phonographic Industry’s 45th annual yearbook.
This was the sector’s sixth consecutive year of growth and amounted to almost a third more than in 2017, when indies made up 22.1 per cent of consumption.
More than 60 albums released by independent labels made the weekly Top 10 of the Official Albums Chart last year.
These included seven chart-topping releases by artists such as Ren, rock bands Enter Shikari and The Reytons and also BMG-signed Kylie, who earlier this year was given the BRIT Awards’ Mastercard Global Icon prize.
At the same ceremony in February, there were a single-year high of six awards for Raye, 26 – who made a point of highlighting how she parted ways with her label Polydor and put out her debut album My 21st Century Blues independently.
Also highlighted in today’s report are Top 10 hits by Casisdead, who won this year’s BRIT for Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act, plus singers Freya Ridings and Arlo Parks.
There were also nods to rappers Dave & AJ Tracey, pop star Claire Richards – formerly of Steps – and The Damned, whose New Rose in 1976 is renowned as the first single by a British punk band.
Almost four in every 10 vinyl LPs bought across the year, or 39.1 per cent, were independent products – with more than 200 indie titles selling at least 1,500 copies last year.
These included releases by alternative rock band Bdrmm, R&B star Jorja Smith and The Japanese House.
And independent releases made up nearly one third, or 32.8 per cent, of CDs sold.
Blur, who played the Coachella festival on Saturday, were among the top-selling bands on vinyl
Vinyl record sales at the end of last year hit a new UK high for the 21st century
Kylie Minogue and Raye were both winners at this years BRITs – and have now been celebrated in the BPI’s annual report as triumphs for independent label artists
Almost 400 indie singles and albums reached new BRIT Certified Platinum, Gold or Silver award levels last year.
BPI chief executive Dr Jo Twist said: ‘The UK music industry has always had a healthy and vibrant independent sector made up of an eclectic mix of many hundreds of labels supporting an extraordinary range of British talent.
‘Their success is underlined by a sixth consecutive year of growth, reflecting both the popularity of their artists on streaming platforms and demand for their releases on vinyl and CD, where they continue to find success with music fans across demographics.
‘The growing success of the UK’s independent sector is just one of many stories in the BPI’s essential All About The Music 2024.
‘At a time when the ways we can enjoy music continue to evolve, our yearbook unpicks and analyses this ever-complex ecosystem.
‘It shows an energetic and hugely successful UK recorded music sector, driven by our incredible artists and the record labels that support them.’
Femi Olasehinde, founder of indie firm Just Another Label, said: ‘It’s great to see independents thriving, and not just the more celebrated labels and their artists.
‘Increasingly also a dynamic and entrepreneurial community of much smaller micro-labels and self-releasing artists are redefining the sector and, with support, can drive further growth.’
One factor behind the continuing vinyl surge is said to be a pop renaissance – along with Gen Z-ers, especially young women, turning to records instead of streaming.
Freya Ridings, filmed here performing on the BBC’s Graham Norton Show in February 2022, is among the independent label-signed artists to have gone platinum in sales last year
Rapper AJ Tracey, seen at the Laneway Festival in Perth in last February, has been celebrated in today’s All About The Music handbook
Also hailed is singer-songwriter Arlo Parks, seen on stage in San Francisco in September 2022
Rotherham indie band the Reytons released third LP Ballad Of A Bystander in January this year
New albums by chart stars such as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Lewis Capaldi helped take pop vinyl sales from 19.6 per cent of the market in 2022 to 23.6 per cent.
Hip hop and rap grew its share of the vinyl trade to 5.3 per cent in 2023, helped by a reissue of De La Soul’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High and Rising.
But rock remained comfortably the biggest genre with a 55.5 per cent market share, with the top 10 best-selling vinyl artists featuring the Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
Blur, with The Ballad of Darren, and the Rolling Stones with Hackney Diamonds also had chart-topping new studio albums released during the year.
Meanwhile, separate new research by the BPI, AudienceNet and Audiomonitor found 39.7 per cent of people picking vinyl as their preferred format for playing music.
The findings come ahead of the annual Record Store Day this coming Saturday, which is being marked with a wave of new special edition releases.
The 2024 highlights include a new 10″ version of Kate Bush’s 1993 single Eat The Music, after she signed on as Record Store Day’s official ambassador this year.
Other tie-ins include a 30th anniversary picture disc release of Blur’s Parkling album, as well as albums by acts including Gorillaz, Emma Bunton, Keane, Mike Oldfield, The Cure, Soft Cell and Scott Walker.
Online music platform Discogs has revealed it will launch a retail site called Record Store Day Afters, where fans who have missed out on what they wanted can buy from co-operating record stores.
Another industry group last month revealed that the number of independent record shops in Britain has hit a 10-year high, with 461 indie record shops across the country – 122 more than a decade ago, according to the digital entertainment and retail association ERA.
Young female Gen Z fans of Taylor Swift are helping fuel a surge in vinyl sales
Casisdead won this year’s BRIT prize for Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap act
Ex-Steps member Claire Richards, pictured performing at Brighton and Hove Pride last August, reached number two in the UK album charts the following month with Euphoria
The Rolling Stones – left to right, Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, performing last October – topped the charts with latest album Hackney Diamonds
Kate Bush, pictured in 1978, is official ambassador for this year’s upcoming Record Store Day
HMV reopened its flagship Oxford Street branch partly due to confidence in the vinyl revival
HMV’s boss Phil Halliday has previously told Gen Z vinyl fans shopping for modern acts was a cause for optimism as his retail firm recently reopened its flagship Oxford Street branch in central London.
Half of all vinyl sales last year were by people aged between 16 and 24, with Gen Z women tending to spend a little more than men.
CD sales continued to fall, though by the slowest rate of decline since 2015 – down by 6.9 per cent to 10.8million units, with Take That’s This Life the most popular with 127,000 copies bought.
Meanwhile, there were six-figure sales for cassettes for the fourth year running – with 136,000 tapes crossing the counters, the bestseller being Guts by Olivia Rodrigo.