In the new issue of Music Week, we investigate the picture for breaking new UK artists as 2017 reaches the halfway stage.
This time last year, we revealed a crisis, with only two 2016 UK debut albums making the Top 200 list. A year on, the numbers look much more encouraging – only Music Week has the full details, while our cover story canvasses opinion from leading executives across the A&R and new music world, with Columbia Records head of A&R Julian Palmer and Caroline Simionescu-Marin, hot shot A&R manager at XL Recordings, among the interviewees.
Elsewhere in news, we inspect the turf war that could prevent artists from playing the O2 Arena, analyse the impact of the Singles Chart revamp and report on the latest acts to sail up to the D2C On Tour model.
This week’s Big Interview subject is Jamie Oborne, manager of The 1975 and head of the Dirty Hit label, who reveals how he took The 1975 to the top, against all odds.
There’s another dose of Music Week’s legendary quarterly analysis as we run the rule over the Q2 numbers and reveal the market trends, big sellers and which labels have come out on top this time around.
Plus, we quiz some of the biggest names in the business on their favourite songs and albums of the year so far and investigate the metropolitan festival phenomenon.
This week’s On The Radar star is Nigerian pop maverick and Drake collaborator Wizkid, while Google Pixel and Mallrat feature in the Sync Story column. This week’s tastemaker is Kerrang!’s Jennyfer Walker.
As usual, there’s all the very latest news, charts and analysis. To subscribe to Music Week and never miss another vital music biz story, click here.
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