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Abbreviation | BPI |
---|---|
Formation | 1973 |
Legal status | Nonprofit organization |
Purpose | Music industry in the United Kingdom |
Location | |
Region served | United Kingdom |
Membership | British music companies |
Chair | YolanDa Brown |
Chief executive | Sophie Jones (interim) |
Main organ | BPI Council |
Website | www |
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards; is home to the Mercury Prize; co-owns the Official Charts Company with the Entertainment Retailers Association; and awards UK music sales through the BRIT Certified Awards.
Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies, including (Sony Music UK, Universal Music UK, Warner Music UK), and over 500 independent record labels and small to medium-sized music businesses.
The BPI council is the management and policy forum of the BPI. It is chaired by the Chair of BPI, and includes the Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer (COO), General Counsel, Chief Strategy Officer and 12 representatives from the recorded music sector: six from major labels –two each from the three "major" companies –and six from the independent sector, who are selected by voting of all BPI independent label members. [1]
BPI has represented the interests of British record companies since being formally incorporated in 1973, when the principal aim was to promote British music and fight copyright infringement.
In 2007, the association's legal name was changed from "British Phonographic Industry Limited (The)" to "BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited".
In September 2008, the BPI became one of the founding members of UK Music, an umbrella organisation representing the interests of all parts of the industry.
In July 2022, YolanDa Brown was appointed chair of BPI, replacing Ged Doherty, who had served in that role the previous seven years. [2]
In July 2023, Jo Twist was appointed chief executive of BPI, replacing Geoff Taylor, who had served in the role since 2007.
BPI founded the annual BRIT Awards for the British music industry in 1977, and, later, the Classic BRIT Awards. The organising company, BRIT Awards Limited, is a fully owned subsidiary of the BPI. Proceeds from both shows go to the BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the BPI that has distributed almost £30m to charitable causes nationwide since its foundation in 1989. In September 2013, the BPI presented the first ever BRITs Icon Award to Elton John. The BPI also endorsed the launch of the Mercury Prize for the Album of the Year in 1992, and since 2016 has organised the Prize.
The recorded music industry's Certified Awards programme, which attributes Platinum, Gold and Silver status to singles, albums and music videos (Platinum and Gold only) based on their sales performance (see BRIT Certified Awards), has been administered by the BPI since its inception in 1973.
The BRIT Trust is the recognised charitable arm of the BPI. It was conceived in 1989 by BPI and a collection of music industry individuals. The BRIT Trust is the only music charity actively supporting all types of music education. Proceeds from the BRIT Awards and The Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS) go to the BRIT Trust, which has donated almost £30m to charitable causes nationwide since its foundation. As of 2024, beneficiaries include The BRIT School, Nordoff and Robbins, East London Arts and Music, Music Support, and Key 4 Life.
Opened in September 1991, the BRIT School is a joint venture between The BRIT Trust and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Based at Selhurst in Croydon, the comprehensive school describes itself as the leading performing and creative arts school in the UK and is completely free to attend. [3] It teaches over 1,400 students each year aged from 14 to 19 years in music, dance, drama, musical theatre, production, media and art and design. Students are from diverse backgrounds and are not required to stick to their own discipline; dancers learn songwriting, pianists can learn photography. [4] [5]
In August 2023, the Department for Education approved BPI’s plan to open a new specialist creative school in Bradford, West Yorkshire, inspired by the successful model of the BRIT School in Croydon.
The BPI administers the BRIT Certified Platinum, Gold and Silver awards scheme for music releases in the United Kingdom. The level of the award varies depending on the format of the release (albums, singles or music videos) and the level of sales achieved. Although the awards programme was for many years based on the level of shipments by record labels to retailers, since July 2013 certifications have been automatically allocated by the BPI upon the relevant sales thresholds being achieved in accordance with Official Charts Company data.
Since July 2014, streaming media has been included for singles and from June 2015 audio streams were added to album certifications. In July 2018 video streams were included in singles certifications for the first time. Streaming's contributions to chart-eligible sales totals for singles and albums are calculated using the methodology employed by the Official Charts Company for consumption at title level.
In April 2018, a new Breakthrough certification was introduced, pertaining to an artist's first album to reach 30,000 sales. Additionally, the programme was re-branded as BRIT Certified, with public promotion of the programme being assumed by the BRIT Awards' social media outlets and digital properties. Former Chief Executive Geoff Taylor justified the change by stating that it was part of an effort to cross-promote the certifications with "the UK's biggest platform for artistic achievement". [6]
In May 2023, BPI launched an expansion of the BRIT Certified Awards Scheme with BRIT Billion, which celebrates outstanding achievement in recorded music by surpassing the landmark of one billion career UK streams – as calculated by the Official Charts Company. Recipients to date include RAYE, Billie Eilish, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Wizkid and Coldplay. In Autumn 2023, Ed Sheeran was presented with a special edition Gold BRIT Billion Award, celebrating his achievement as the first British artist to surpass ten billion career UK streams.
Format | Status [7] | ||
---|---|---|---|
Silver | Gold | Platinum | |
Album | 60,000 [nb 1] | 100,000 [nb 1] | 300,000 [nb 1] |
Single | 200,000 [nb 2] | 400,000 [nb 2] | 600,000 [nb 2] |
Music DVD | — | 25,000 | 50,000 |
The BPI have developed bespoke software and automated crawling tools created in-house by the BPI which search for members' repertoire across more than 400 known infringing sites and generate URLs which are sent to Google as a DMCA Notice for removal within hours of receipt. [9] Additionally, personnel are also seconded to the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit to support anti-"piracy" operations.
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) operates an awards program based on the certified number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards. Certification is not automatic; for an award to be made, the record label must first request certification. The audit is conducted against net shipments after returns, which includes albums sold directly to retailers and one-stops, direct-to-consumer sales and other outlets.
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory.
The Kinks, an English rock band, were active for over three decades, from 1963 to 1996, releasing 26 studio albums and four live albums. The first two albums are differently released in the UK and the US, partly due to the difference in popularity of the extended play format, and partly due to the US albums including the hit singles, and the UK albums not; after The Kink Kontroversy in 1965 the albums were the same. Between 100 and 200 compilation albums have been released worldwide.
The discography of the English girl group All Saints consists of five studio albums, two compilation albums, one remix album, two video albums and 18 singles between London Records and Parlophone Records.
Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON) is a non-profit organization integrated by multinational and national record companies in Mexico. Established on April 3, 1963, it is a trade association of phonographic companies that represent more than 70 percent of the market in Mexico. AMPROFON is an associated member of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The Bundesverband Musikindustrie, or simply BVMI, represents the music industry in Germany. The association represents the interests of nearly 280 labels and music industry related enterprises, which comprise 90% of the music industry. It is a member of the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), consisting of music associations of 70 countries.
The Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) is the organization that represents the interests of the music, video and video game industries in Belgium. It was founded in February 2008, when three organizations merged, namely IFPI Belgium, the local chapter of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represented the music industry, the Belgian Video Federation, which represented the video industry, and the Belgian Luxembourg Interactive Software Association, which represented the video game industry. BEA is listed as the local record industry association in Belgium by the IFPI.
The Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry is the trade organization that represents the interests of the music industry in Poland, and the Polish chapter of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Founded in 1991, it is authorised by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to act as a copyright collective in the field of phonogram and videogram producers' rights. ZPAV publishes the Polish Music Charts and awards music recording sales certifications. It also issues the Fryderyk annual award for Polish music.
Scottish recording artist Jimmy Somerville has entered the music industry as the frontman of the synth-pop act, known as Bronski Beat. Alongside, he would score an early international success with a series of top-ten hits, such as "Smalltown Boy", "Why?" and "I Feel Love Medley"; all taken from the trio's debut album, The Age of Consent (1984), as well the remix equivalent, Hundreds & Thousands (1985). A similar status enjoyed the follow-up hit singles: "Don't Leave Me This Way", "So Cold the Night" and "Never Can Say Goodbye"; these though, were recorded for the eponymous set of his later duo Communards (1986), or its Red successor (1987) yet. The singer's own full-length debut would see its eventual results at the very end of the 1980s, marking the ending of his former bands' years, or rather the beginning of his solo era since.