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.

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%