Universal Music, Sony Invest in Artists as Industry Value Drops
This article is for subscribers only.
Record labels spent $2.7 billion on artists and repertoire last year, even as revenue in the music business contracted and a gloomy economy caused other industries to curb investment.
Labels spent about 16 percent of 2011 revenue on A&R, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report today. That is more than in other industries, where such spending would be described as research and development, it said, citing 9.6 percent investment in the software industry and 15.3 percent in pharmaceuticals. The investment comparisons are based on the European Commission’s 2011 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.