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February 15, 2009

Financial Times on UK Music Industry 2009: 'The prognosis isn’t good'...

Financial Times | Read Full Story >

The run-up to this year’s Brits involves a more generalised sense of Schadenfreude, with the retail downturn hitting UK record companies especially hard, and the government seemingly reluctant to do anything concrete about the illegal downloading that threatens their very survival. So are there any causes for optimism in the 2009 pop marketplace, and, if so, might the British music business still have something to offer a public which persists in branding it “the Man”?

On the evidence of last month’s Brit Awards Launch Party, the prognosis isn’t good. Every aspect of this televised scene-setting exercise suggested that the real fun was to be had elsewhere. The location was the Roundhouse in north London, the now clinically refurbished home of the 1960s counter-culture. And the first of a trio of hopefuls to perform was Gabriela Cilmi – a notional rival to Beyoncé and Pink in the Best International Female category, despite being British-based with one big hit behind her but no immediate prospect of any more.



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