OFFICIAL CHARTS COMPANY: Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize 2013: The real winners revealed!

Chart and sales information quoted from this release must be credited to the Official Charts Company, online outlets please link to article URL below.


Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize 2013: The real winners revealed


Arctic Monkeys, Rudimental, Jake Bugg and Disclosure see sales uplift since being nominated for the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize.

The winner of the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize will be announced this evening (Wednesday, October 30) at a ceremony in central London. The bookies currently have Arctic Monkey’s AM and David Bowie’s The Next Day as joint favourites to take this year’s award, however it is actually albums byRudimentalJake Bugg and Disclosure that have enjoyed the biggest sales boost since being shortlisted on September 11 of this year, the Official Charts Company can reveal.

Compared to 2012’s relatively “obscure” nominations, the nominees list for this year’s Mercury Music Prize has been dominated by a raft of artists who have tasted significant commercial success at the top of the Official Albums Chart. No less than five of 2013’s nominated albums have reached the coveted Number 1 spot in the past 12 months, including Bowie’s The Next DayRudimental’s HomeJake BuggDisclosure’s Settle and Arctic Monkey’s AM (compared to one chart-topping nominee last year). But once again, the Mercury Prize has shined its light on an eclectic mix of British musical acts, driving welcome exposure and sales of the year’s most exciting home-grown talent.

Featuring the Number 1 singles Feel The Love and Waiting All NightRudimental’s chart-topping album Home has shifted 29,000 copies since its nomination, according to Official Charts Company sales data. The East London collective’s debut offering has now sold more than 314,000 copies in the UK since it was released back in April.

Meanwhile, 19 year old Nottingham talent Jake Bugg and his eponymous 2012 debut album have increased by 25,600 copies since being shortlisted (548,000 total sales to date), while Disclosure’s Settle is up by 23,000 copies (165,000 total).

Arctic Monkeys, who scooped the £20,000 top prize back in 2006 with their era-defining debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not, appear to have notched up the most sales of all shortlisted acts across the nominations period, clearing a cool 321,000 copies of AM in the last seven weeks.  However, this is skewed by the release date of the critically-acclaimed AM coinciding with the week of the Mercury nominations announcement.  AM remains the second fastest selling album of 2013 to date, behind Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories.

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot says:

"Based on total sales to date, Jake Bugg is the clear Mercury winner – however, looking at sales since the nominations were announced, Arctic Monkeys should romp home.” 

"Who the judges ultimately choose,  only time will tell. But what seems clear is that, if the public were choosing, there are four outstanding candidates - Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg, Rudimental and Disclosure.“

As well as rewarding the hard work of more established acts, the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize historically has also helped shine the spotlight on lesser known British and Irish artists. This year sees London-based producer Jon Hopkins almost double the sales of his latest album, Immunity (a sales uplift of 44%), since being shortlisted, while sales of singer / songwriter James Blake’s second album, Overgrown, have increased by 18%.

 

 

 

Notes to Editors
Chart and sales information quoted from this release must be credited to the Official Charts Company, online outlets please link to www.officialcharts.com

About Official Charts Company
The Official Charts Company are the providers of the UK's only official music and video charts, as seen at OfficialCharts.com, on BBC Radio 1, MTV, Music Week, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and many more.  Compiling its charts purely from sales information gathered across all key distribution (or entertainment) channels including all major high street retail chains, independent stores, supermarkets, mail order internet retailers and digital music service providers. This market research sample equates to 99% of the total UK singles market; 98% of the total UK albums market and 90% of the total UK DVD market.

The Official Charts Company is a joint venture between record labels' body the BPI and ERA, the Entertainment Retailers Association. The Official Charts Company are responsible for the commissioning, marketing, distribution and management of the UK's industry standard music charts and industry sales data.

About OfficialCharts.com 
OfficialCharts.com is the new destination site of the UK’s Official Charts, delivering exclusive breaking chart news, video interviews with the week’s Official Number 1 artist, hot new releases and competitions to 1.5 million of the UK’s biggest chart fans monthly. You can access the full Official Singles and Official Albums Chart Top 100, plus official charts for Rock, RnB, Dance, and many more.  You can also search our historical chart archive from the Access The Archive box on the home page, here you can search the Official Charts Company archive by date, artist, song or album title or keyword.

View the Official Charts
The Official Charts Company publishes the full Official Singles Chart and Official Albums Charts Top 100 online at http://www.officialcharts.com/singles-chart/and http://www.officialcharts.com/albums-chart/.  You can also search our historical chart archive from the Access The Archive box on the home page, here you can search the Official Charts Company archive by date, artist, song or album title or keyword.

Hear the Official Charts
The Official Chart Update with Scott Mills and Jameela Jamil, 3:30-4pm, BBC Radio 1; The Official Chart Show with Jameela Jamil, Sunday 4pm-7pm, BBC Radio 1; Jo Whiley, Mondays 8pm-9pm (Jo features Official Albums Chart highlights). BBC Radio 1 can be found on 97-99FM; on DAB Radio; online at bbc.co.uk/radio1; and on Freeview, Sky, Virgin and Freesat.

The Official Chart Update gives music fans a weekly sneak preview of the Official Singles and Albums Charts. Every Wednesday from 3.30pm to 4pm, Jameela Jamil and Scott Millsprovide a "half-time" bulletin on his BBC Radio 1 Show, letting music fans in on who is leading the way in the Official Singles & Albums Charts ahead of the Sunday Official Chart announcement. The Update reveals how the runners and riders are selling in the first three days of the sales week (Sunday through Tuesday), outlining the hottest new tracks of the week so far, as well as the new entries and highest climbers.

For more information:
Lauren on +44 (0) 207 620 7458 / 07789 886263 / lauren@officialcharts.com

October 30, 2013 4:00am ET by Official Charts Company   Comments (0)

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