Almost half a billion pounds (£497 million) was invested by UK record labels and music publishers in writing and producing new music, signing and developing artists and songwriters, and promoting records, according to figures for 2014 released the BPI and the Music Publishers Association.

British record labels invested £178m in A&R in 2014, equivalent to a 25.4% of their annual revenues. That's a 19% increase year-on-year, with £149m spent in 2013, and is the highest level of A&R investment as a proportion of revenues since records ...