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

According to trade report, the strength of songwriting revenue and tours have seen the sector grow by 9%.

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”.

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