Mercury Prize 2012 - the winners so far

 

01/11/2012

By Tom Lane

 

With the winner of the Mercury Music Prize 2012 set to be announced this evening, OfficialCharts.com can confirm that the 12 nominated albums have seen dramatic sales increases since the shortlist for the annual award ceremony was revealed on September 12.

 

According to Official Charts Company sales data, East London rapper Plan B’s third album, Ill Manors has received the biggest uplift of 43,100 copies (44%). The album is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which he wrote and directed. Since its release in July, Ill Manors has sold now 140,100 copies in the UK.

 

Leeds alternative rockers Alt-J’s debut album, An Awesome Wave, has seen a 79% increase in sales, shifting an additional 31,900 copies since it was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. West London singer-songwriter Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom has seen a sales increase of 24,200 copies (9%). However, Howard’s debut album is the biggest selling record nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize (287,200), equating to a third of the combined sales figures of all the nominated albums.

 

South London singer/songwriter and ex-SBTRKT vocalist Jessie Ware will also be celebrating right now as sales of her critically acclaimed debut album Devotion have almost doubled (92%) since being nominated.

 

The Mercury Prize 2012 sales impact to date has been felt most strongly by those albums that had sold fewer than 10,000 copies at the time of nomination. Roller Trio’s self-titled album and Sam Lee’s Ground Of Its Own sales increased by 617% and 130%, respectively.

 

Prior to nomination, the 12 albums had sold a total of 706,000 copies between them. Over the seven weeks since, the nominees have seen their combined total album sales rise by 155,000 copies to 860,000 sales to date across the set.

 

The Official Biggest Selling Mercury Prize Albums Of 2012 are as follows:

 

Position /// Artist /// Album /// Label /// Sales Prior to Nomination /// Sales to Date /// Sales Increase /// Percentage Increase /// Peak

01. PLAN B - ILL MANORS - ATLANTIC - 97,000 - 140,100 - 43,100 - 44% - 1

02. ALT-J - AN AWESOME WAVE - INFECTIOUS - 40,600 - 72,500 - 31,900 - 79% - 19

03. BEN HOWARD - EVERY KINGDOM - ISLAND - 263,100 - 287,200 - 24,200 - 9% - 6

04. JESSIE WARE - DEVOTION - ISLAND - 15,200 29,300 - 14,100 - 92% - 5

05. RICHARD HAWLEY - STANDING AT THE SKY'S EDGE - PARLOPHONE - 37,300 - 46,500 - 9,200 - 25% - 3

06. LIANNE LA HAVAS - IS YOUR LOVE BIG ENOUGH? - WARNER BROS. - 28,900 - 37,300 - 8,400 - 29% - 4

07. MICHAEL KIWANUKA - HOME AGAIN - LONDON - 93,800 - 101,300 - 7,600 - 8% - 4

08. THE MACCABEES - GIVEN TO THE WILD - FICTION - 92,000 - 98,700 - 6,700 - 7% - 4

09. DJANGO DJANGO - DJANGO DJANGO - BECAUSE MUSIC - 29,100 - 35,400 - 6,300 - 22% - 33

10. FIELD MUSIC - PLUMB - MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - 17% - 49

11. SAM LEE - GROUND OF ITS OWN - THE NEST COLLECTIVE - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - 131% - N/A

12. ROLLER TRIO - ROLLER TRIO - PROPER MUSIC - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - LESS THAN 10,000 - 618% - N/A

Edited November 1, 201212 yr by liamk97

Didn't realise Plan B had sold that much :o Would love if he could top 200k.

 

Ben Howard's album is just gonna keep selling for ages to come, a la Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More (although it'll probably never get to the million mark). His second album is definitely going to be a big #1 debut though.

 

Good to see Michael Kiwanuka's album passing 100k but that Sound of 2012 win is looking a bit off now.

Edited November 1, 201212 yr by Bré

Saw this on Twitter earlier - So nice to get actual sales figures wish they would do it more often!

Didn't realise Plan B had sold that much :o Would love if he could top 200k.

 

Probably will do some point next year when The Ballad of Belmarsh is released. Hopefully ill Manors will make a return to the Top 40 if Playing With Fire gets supported by Radio 1 (although I can only see the single reaching #35-#40 with radio support and a reduction to 59p on iTunes).

Good for Viscapper to get some sales for albums lower down the lists!!

It's a disgrace that Jessie Ware's stunning album hasn't even cracked 30k :/

It's a disgrace that Jessie Ware's stunning album hasn't even cracked 30k :/

 

[2]. the fact she's been outsold by django django surprised me so much!

So the favourites Alt-J won - Hopefully they will get some decent sales from it and they should easily pass 100k now soon and im sure it will pass its #19 peak seeing as it was #27 in last weeks chart.

Good for Viscapper to get some sales for albums lower down the lists!!

 

Though them saying 'less than 10k' for some, isn't exactly helpful. :P

Though them saying 'less than 10k' for some, isn't exactly helpful. :P

 

How close were your estimates to the totals on the list (aside from the "less than 10k ones" of course! :P)? I remember your estimates for the totals they gave just after the shortlist was announced were very close.

Article from the Guardian relevant to this - about sales and the Mercury's!!

 

Mercury prize winners Alt-J would have done well anyway

Indie band's album An Awesome Wave was worth rewarding but had already developed a momentum of its own

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o Alexis Petridis

o The Guardian, Thursday 1 November 2012 23.29 GMT

o Jump to comments (…)

 

Mercury prize-winning band the Alt-Js play ambitious and eclectic stuff, marshalling a diverse range of influences. Photograph: Nick Pickles/Redferns via Getty Images

There is a sense in which the winner of the Mercury prize was announced some time before the envelope was opened and Alt-J were awarded the gong.

The Official Chart Company published the sales figures of the nominated albums both before and after the shortlist was announced. It transpired that it had had virtually no effect whatsoever on the most commercially successful nominees.

Sales for singer-songwriters Michael Kiwanuka and Ben Howard, and indie band the Maccabees had gone up by between 7% and 9%, in apparent acknowledgement of the fact that mainstream music buyers don't care much about the award. Anyone on a quest for further evidence of disinterest among the general populace might alight on the fact that its new televisual home, Channel 4, gave over a grand total of five minutes to the awards ceremony, while its specialist music channel 4 Music managed half an hour, as opposed to the hour and a half it devoted to US reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

The biggest victors were the folk and jazz artists whose nominations are routinely derided as tokenistic: sales for singer-songwriter Sam Lee rose by 131%, while the eponymous debut by Leeds's technically awesome Roller Trio rocketed by 618%.

You could argue that tells you something about how few albums technically awesome young jazz trios shift in the first place – even with the Mercury-assisted boost, their album's sales are still in four figures – but nevertheless it is clear that the prize has had an effect, however temporary, on their commercial standing.

If you're looking for a reason for the Mercury prize to exist, maybe this is it: it can shine a light on some unfairly neglected corners of British music. This rather demands the question of why a few more unfairly neglected areas of British music aren't included on the shortlist.

By contrast, the winning album, An Awesome Wave, had already developed such a momentum of its own that even before it was nominated for the Mercury, bookies were giving good odds that it would win; it would probably have done just as well commercially without the awards' patronage.

Of course, that doesn't detract from its merits, which are considerable and definitely worth rewarding. As indie in 2012 goes, it's pretty ambitious and eclectic stuff, marshalling a diverse range of influences – R&B, folk, a children's choir and bhangra among them – into short, sharp pop songs that twist and turn without feeling overcomplicated. It doesn't really fit comfortably into any prevalent trends in guitar rock – comparisons have been made to Radiohead, which perhaps has more to do with the evident care and attention the band expend on their sound than the end result – which is usually a good sign although, as any number of past Mercury winners will attest, it's hard to predict the future once the award itself becomes a distant memory.

Perhaps the most telling thing about its quality is not that it won the Mercury prize but that it was already succeeding before the award hoved into view.