LONDON – One in 10 albums bought in the United States last year was by a British act, figures from the BPI, which represents the British recorded music business, showed yesterday.
The rise to 10 percent from 8.5 percent in 2007 was due to a mixture of established bands like Coldplay which released “VivaLa Vida or Death and All His Friends,” and Radiohead with “In Rainbows” and newer acts like Duffy, Leona Lewis and Estelle.
There is one caveat, however. British pop stars are gaining a growing share of a rapidly declining U.S. market.
U.S. album sales fell 14 percent in 2008, according to retail data collected by tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.
Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” was the top-selling British album in the United States last year and the second biggest album of the year there overall.
Australian-British group AC/DC were second with “Black Ice” followed by Leona Lewis (“Spirit”), Amy Winehouse (“Back to Black”) and Duffy (“Rockferry”).
Lewis’s single “Bleeding Love” was the most downloaded single in the United States last year.