News

Annual celebration takes place this Saturday April 20th

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said: “The ONS decision to add vinyl records to its basket of goods and services is an incredible milestone, marking the return to the mainstream of a format, most people – including the music industry – had given up on. “The long march back to popularity of vinyl is first and foremost a reflection of the inherent qualities of the format, in terms of touch, visual appeal and of course sound quality. But it is also a reflection of the skill and insight of the independent and High Street retailers who first identified that even as music became more convenient and less tangible in the streaming age there would be a need for a physical format which offered things which streaming could not. “This is a day not just to celebrate the renewed success of vinyl but also to salute the retailers who pointed the way to this remarkable comeback.”

ERA CEO Kim Bayley has been named to the Women In Trade Association 2024 Powerlist, created by the Trade Associations Federation, the “trade association of trade associations”, to celebrate International Women’s Day. This latest honour comes just 2 weeks after Bayley was highly commended for her “outstanding leadership” at the Trade Association Federation Awards. “I welcome TAF’s initiative to highlight the role of women in trade associations – six of our eight team members are women – and I am honoured to be included,” she said. In her 21st year as CEO of ERA, Kim Bayley is still innovating and pushing the organisation forwards, in the past year launching the organisation’s debut Retail Champion Awards and Summer Party. Bayley is best-known as the woman who turned a little-known trade org representing physical record stores into the UK’s, and possibly the world’s, only advocacy group which brings together digital giants – like Spotify, Amazon and YouTube – with the smallest indie record shops. It was Bayley who stepped in 15 years ago to offer admin and logistical support to a handful of indie stores who had dreamed up the idea of a day celebrating record shops. Under her guidance Record Store Day has become an annual fixture in the music industry calendar attracting star ambassadors such as Sir Elton John and The 1975, sponsored by BBC Sounds and a string of commercial partners. A tireless advocate for digital services and retailers, Bayley has appeared on virtually every mainstream media outlet. She has displayed her skills as a lobbyist over a three year period in which music streaming companies have faced scrutiny from the DCMS Select Committee, the Intellectual Property Office and the Competition & Markets Authority, winning people over with her transparent communication style and commitment to finding collaborative solutions to complicated situations.

INDIE RECORD SHOPS HIT A NEW HIGH SINCE 2014 HIGH OF 461

Fifteen years after the launch of the first streaming service in the UK, DSPs and retailers are keeping up the pace of innovation in order to keep music, video and games fans entertained, according to data due to be published this week by digital entertainment and retail association ERA. In a survey of members conducted for its latest annual yearbook, ERA reveals that the past 12 months have seen the launch of innovations ranging from an AI-powered personal DJ from Spotify to the introduction of wheeled robots to select product for customers in the UK’s largest CD and vinyl warehouse. ERA Chief Innovation & Public Affairs Officer Lucie Caswell said, “Over the past decade streaming platforms and retailers have demonstrated that they are the engine room of growth in entertainment, doubling sales over that period to £11.9bn. But innovation is not just about the once-in-a-generation creation of an entirely new way of enjoying innovation like Spotify or YouTube Music or Amazon Prime Video – it’s about a day-to-day commitment constantly to improve the customer experience. It’s only through constant innovation that we can continue to grow the business to benefit creators and fans alike.” The ERA Yearbook features eight case studies of 2023 innovations by ERA member streaming services and retailers: Amazon Prime Video - Bonus X-Ray content for film fans; GAME - Gaming promoting social causes; Proper Music Distribution - A warehouse powered by robots; Qobuz - A custom magazine with immersive content; Serenade - Digital “pressings” offering exclusive content; Sky - Offering a big-screen experience at home; Soundcloud - Intelligent charts refined using AI; Spotify - AI DJ offering personalised recommendation. The ERA Yearbook is published this Wednesday, March 6, and includes more than 80 pages of charts and statistics detailing the changing face of the music, video and games business in the UK in 2023, a year in which overall sales leapt 7% to reach £11.9bn.

Unnoticed by much of the UK music industry, we’ve only just gone and done it: the UK music business has hit a new all-time high. According to ERA research, in the chart week ended Friday 23 February, the UK music business completed its historic long march back from the wilderness and finally matched and then overtook its 2001 peak. On an annualised basis, digital and physical revenues together hit £2,223m, just ahead of the £2,219m peak last seen in October 2001. The significance of this moment should not be underestimated. Virtually no one under 40 working in the music industry can remember the glory days of the business through the Nineties. With a typical career in the music business rarely exceeding 10 years, at least two generations have been and gone in that time. It included 12 long years of decline until finally the bottom was reached and the industry began its equally arduous journey of growth which has brought us to today. How many brilliant artists, inspirational songwriters and, yes, talented executives missed the opportunity to shine in that period we shall never know. After sales crashed in the face of internet piracy, countless jobs were lost, businesses collapsed and careers were ruined. Within ERA’s own membership we lost storied names such as Woolworths, Our Price and Tower. We lost HMV twice until it was reborn in 2019. It was an economic and human tragedy. ERA’s research show we have finally put those years of hurt behind us. But in order to move on, we need to understand two things – how it is we came back from the brink and what we need to do next. Music’s recovery has been almost entirely retail-led. The music business did not collapse because music somehow became worse and nor can its recovery be attributed to music getting better. Music recovered first because entrepreneurs outside music saw a gap in the market that we missed or were unable to execute – for the subscription streaming model. They did so with their own money and they did it successfully. At the other end of the scale, the remaining hardcore of high street music shops that had somehow clung on identified another opportunity – that there was residual and growable demand for the then-derided vinyl format. Both of these retail-led innovations not only turned out successful, they have disproportionately benefited the music industry. Which brings us to today and what we do next. While recapturing the level of sales the UK music industry last enjoyed in 2001 is an important milestone of which we can be proud, it is far from the level of success we should be satisfied with. Inflation means that rather than £2.2bn, UK recorded music sales should be at £3.9bn genuinely to match 2001’s success. That means we would need to grow nearly 80% in consumer spending terms to achieve the same level of income. That’s not impossible. If we were able to maintain last year’s 9.8% growth rate, we could probably do so within a decade assuming inflation were to be under control. With the UK streaming market maturing rapidly and most forecasters assuming lower growth, the chances of that happening, however, seem remote. What we need instead is a recognition that music itself is unlikely to generate the growth the music industry needs. Signing even more new artists is unlikely to move the dial. Instead we need another transformational technology, which can provide a route to the increase in revenue we need to really match the glory days of 2001. Technology alone is not enough - we need to embrace the entrepreneurs who dare to think the unthinkable. At the risk of being “controversial”, we also need to recognise that digital services and retailers also need to make a profit if the entire music ecosystem is to succeed. Some believe that new generation AI could yet deliver just such a transformation, but that remains to be seen. The key point is that incremental improvements are unlikely to deliver the leap we really need. So let’s resolve to be bold, to grasp opportunity and dare to think really big. Next stop: £3.9bn!

ANNUALISED REVENUE EXCEEDS 2001 RECORD

Kim Bayley, CEO of ERA, comments on the publication of the Music Streaming Transparency Code

The value of the UK music, video and games markets increased for the eleventh successive year in 2023, rising 7% to another all-time record of £11.9bn, according to preliminary figures released today by digital entertainment and retail association ERA.

Kim Bayley, CEO of digital entertainment and retail association ERA, has been highlighted for her outstanding leadership by the Trade Association Forum (TAF), the trade association for UK trade associations.

Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) has appointed Lucie Caswell as Chief Innovation & Government Affairs Officer to help drive consensus around evolving entertainment technologies.

Luminate Senior Research Analyst Saskia Allan revealed new data outlining that while 50% of people say they would economise on eating out and takeaways due to the cost of living crisis, only 27% say they would cut down on entertainment subscriptions and just 25% said they would cut down on purchases of CDs, DVDs, books, magazines and games.

Digital entertainment and retail association ERA has presented its first Retail Champions Awards, dubbed the “Ivors of music retail” in an event already set to become a fixture in the music industry calendar.

Digital entertainment and retail association ERA today suggested that proposals to regulate voice-controlled devices are disproportionate and could undermine consumer choice as to where and how they access radio and podcasts.

Following today’s publication by the Intellectual Property Office of a UK music industry agreement on streaming metadata, Kim Bayley, CEO of digital entertainment and retail association ERA, shared a statement.

Five key insights from the ERA Yearbook.

ERA is pleased to announce that Ben Drury, one of the key architects of the UK digital music business, is to take up the role of ERA Chair.