British artists accounted for nearly 12% of global music sales in 2010

"British artists accounted for almost 12% of global sales of recorded music during 2010, new BPI figures today revealed, as a new Ipsos MORI poll found that the vast majority (83%) of the public believe that British music’s achievements are something to be proud of.
Commenting on the findings at the BPI's 2011 AGM, held today, Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said, "Britons are rightly proud of the fact that we are global leaders in music - one in five of the Top 50 selling records released around the world last year featured British artists.  As more people consume music online, we have the opportunity to get even stronger - in March this year, UK performers held the top 3 positions in the US Billboard Chart, for the first time in 25 years.
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In the biggest music market of all – America – UK acts accounted for one in 10 (9.8%) of every artist album sold in 2010, rising to one in seven (13.4%) in Canada.
In Europe, the picture remained healthy with British acts bagging around half (48.9%) of artist album sales in the UK.  A sizeable impact on share was also made in the German (17.9%) and French (14.5%) markets.
Britain’s share of sales held steady in Australia, the worlds 7th biggest market, taking one in five (20.2%) artist albums.  UK artists also accounted for a 3.8% share of total Japanese artist album sales – more than a fifth (21.8%) of international sales overall in a market dominated by local ‘J-Pop’ repertoire."

Source:  Press release from the BPI, 6th July 2011