Bard Estimates 2001 Music Sales At $3 Billion In U.k.

The British Assn. of Record Dealers (BARD) has marked its recent rebranding as "The Voice of Entertainment Retailing" by publishing its second yearbook, which includes the first published estimate of the total retail value of recorded music sales in the U.K. last year.

The new estimates from BARD put the retail value of recorded music sales in 2001 at £2.09 billion ($3 billion), up 2.3% on 2000. The figures appear several months ahead of the 2001 retail sales figures from labels body the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which will appear in that organization's annual statistical handbook in June.

Record-industry consultant Peter Scaping, who compiled the statistics for BARD's newly published yearbook, says the retail sales estimate is based on BPI trade shipment figures for the 12 months through Sept. 30, 2001, and on retail prices supplied by research company Taylor Nelson Sofres, with allowances made for imports.

According to the BPI, the trade value of shipments in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2001, was £1.23 billion ($1.76 billion), up 5.3%. Scaping says the difference between BARD's estimate of the rise in retail value and the BPI shipments figure reflects "pressure on retail prices." Scaping says he expects the final BPI figures to be "broadly in line" with BARD's.

Among the other statistics in the yearbook's section on market trends are the latest figures from research company Millward Brown, which show that the total number of shops selling recorded music continues to fall, down from 5,629 in 2000 to 5,601 in 2001. In his annual report in the yearbook, association chairman Simon Wright writes, "In 2002, we want to extend the potential of BARD to allow it to become the leading trade body for entertainment retailing as a whole in the U.K. and Ireland."

Despite that widening of BARD's scope, director general Bob Lewis emphasizes that "the fundamental aims of the association remain unchanged." BARD's 215 members range from single-store independents to specialist multiples, such as HMV or Virgin, e-tailer Amazon.com, and supermarket chain Asda.

The BARD yearbook also includes a foreword by Douglas Alexander, the U.K. government's Minister for E-Commerce and Competitiveness; a round-up of recent and forthcoming legislation affecting retailers; and a complete list of BARD members.