UK music retail looks healthy despite economic woes

There are some positive signals coming from music retail these days, too. You only have to look outside the U.S. In the UK Take That sold 133,000 copies of their latest album “The Circus” on its first day of release (Dec. 1st). According to Polydor, these are the biggest first day sales of the year so far. Take That even beat Coldplay who in June had sold 125,000 units of “Viva La Vida” on day one. 

This is remarkable news. While record sales here in the U.S. keep falling with no end in sight, the British market seems to defy all odds. Remember: Wholeseller EUK has been under administration since last week and shipment of product has been spotty at best. The Zavvi chain, for instance, claims it didn’t get any copies of Take That’s new album or Britney Spear’s “Circus”. The retailer even had to suspend the ordering function at its webshop. 

As a reaction to the problems at EUK, which supplies up to 30 percent of the UK market with CDs, Games and DVDs, Universal Music last week had to stop a delivery truck which was headed for the EUK distribution center with a load of 200,000 copies of “The Circus”. When Universal learned that Woolworths and EUK were insolvent they made the driver turn around to avoid having the supply snared in the administrative process. 

According to Universal Music UK Chairman David Joseph, “The Circus” is some kind of Christmas miracle. “Today’s sales figures are even more exciting considering the album wasn’t available in all stores yesterday,” Joseph said. And Martin Talbot, Managing Director of the Official Charts Company OCC, told Billboard: “The success of Take That this week would be impressive enough. But, coming at a time of low consumer confidence and the particular issues of the music distribution sector, it is quite remarkable. The new album is clearly set to be one of this Christmas’s biggest sellers, beyond any doubt.”