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Pop music appears to be the course that record companies are following in an attempt to navigate out of the doldrums of flat sales. International markets offer opportunities that have often been ignored, writes Paul Gorman
Among the regular round of UK industry executive moves this summer, one appointment in particular underlined the increasing significance attached to securing international sales in a territory that has until recently been consistently Anglo-American fixated.
That appointment was the widening of East West international head Ian Grenfell's responsibilities to include those of general manager of the Warner UK subsidiary. The move was partly prompted by the fact that the label has been overseen on a daily basis by Warner UK chairman Rob Dickins since the departure in February of managing director Max Hole. But it also denoted the sea change that has taken place in the attitude to foreign sales.
"International departments are definitely becoming more important, but that's because we've always viewed things globally and labels are now turning their attention to the rest of the world," says East West's Grenfell. "By working acts such as Vangelis, for example, who is huge in Hungary and sells well from Korea to Argentina we get to understand how individual markets work and build experience of sectors such as media and retail."
As a result Grenfell, like many of his counterparts, is now working acts "backwards", allowing them to build a head of steam around the world. For example, new rock/pop quartet Ultra's debut album was released in south east Asia, where it has sold 50,000 copies, and Europe, before the UK. "We're confident of achieving 200,000 in Asia alone, particularly after we release their single Shattered Dreams. That's a big ballad which is perfect for the region," says Grenfell.
While overseas sales of musically diverse UK-signed acts such as Vangelis and Virgin's trip hop pioneers Massive Attack demonstrate the range of UK-signed talent flowing from the British Isles, foreign acceptance of British music is currently predicated on pop. Virgin's adoption of a global approach in breaking The Spice Girls two years ago opened the floodgates for a range of teen-appeal acts, from WEA's Cleopatra to RCA 'badboys' Five, who have respectively scored Top 10 and Top 30 slots...