Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2013: The real winners revealed

Arctic Monkeys, Rudimental, Jake Bugg and Disclosure see sales uplifts since being nominated for the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury Prize.
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Arctic Monkeys, Rudimental, Jake Bugg and Disclosure see sales uplifts since being nominated for the 2013 Barclaycard Mercury 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 by Rudimental, Jake Bugg and Disclosure that have enjoyed the biggest sales boost since being shortlisted on September 11 of this year.

Compared to 2012’s relatively “obscure” nominations, the nominees list for this year’s Mercury 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 Day, Rudimental’s Home, Jake Bugg, Disclosure’s Settle and Arctic Monkey’s AM (compared to one chart-topping nominee last year). But once again, the Mercury Prize has shined on a light on an eclectic mix of British musical acts, driving crucial exposure and sales of the year’s most exciting home-grown talent.

Featuring the Number 1 singles Feel The Love and Waiting All Night, Rudimental’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," he adds. "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 Mercury 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%.

Mercury Music Prize Albums Of 2013 - The Official Sales Impact

  ARTIST ALBUM PEAK CHART POSITION SALES DURING PERIOD SALES PRIOR TO NOMS SALES TO DATE % INCREASE
1 ARCTIC MONKEYS AM 1 321,300 n/a 321,300 >100%
2 RUDIMENTAL HOME 1 29,000 285,200 314,100 10%
3 JAKE BUGG JAKE BUGG 1 25,600 522,800 548,400 5%
4 DISCLOSURE SETTLE 1 23,400 141,600 165,000 17%
5 FOALS HOLY FIRE 2 7,300 116,000 123,300 6%
6 LAURA MVULA SING TO THE MOON 9 6,500 71,300 77,800 9%
7 DAVID BOWIE THE NEXT DAY 1 6,200 214,000 220,200 3%
8 JAMES BLAKE OVERGROWN 8 4,300 23,500 27,700 18%
9 LAURA MARLING ONCE I WAS AN EAGLE 3 4,100 40,000 44,100 10%
10 JON HOPKINS IMMUNITY 63 2,800 6,300 9,100 44%
11 SAVAGES SILENCE YOURSELF 19 2,000 15,100 17,100 13%
12 VILLAGERS AWAYLAND 16 1,400 17,000 18,500 9%

© 2013 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

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