One in six albums sold worldwide by British artists in 2015

British artists achieved record 17.1 percent of the global music market last year, a report published Friday said.

British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a representative association of Britain's recorded music business, published a report showing the British music industry had huge success in 2015, though total revenues fell by 1 percent to 688 million pounds (about 1 billion U.S. dollars).

The report said that British music industry accounted for 17.1 percent of the world music market, which is highest ever share, equivalent to around one in every six artist albums sold worldwide.

It said the extraordinary success was led by English singer Adele, whose latest album 25 became the world's best-selling album with 17.4 million copies sold in 2015.

Report showed that British artists dominated the British market, with seven of year's top-10 artist albums, while globally they accounted for half of top-10 best sellers, including Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, One Direction and Coldplay.

"It is hugely encouraging that demand for British music is so strong at home and abroad thanks to our brilliant artists and the continual innovation and investment of our record labels," said Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI & BRIT Awards.

"Yet the fact that sales revenues dipped in a record year for British music shows clearly that something is fundamentally broken in the music market, so that artists and the labels that invest in them no longer benefit fairly from growing demand," he added. Enditem