The U.K. might be a small island in the ocean, but we definitely had a big voice in music this past year. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) just released some numbers, and I wanted to take a quick minute to give a big shout-out to some of the U.K.'s finest musical exports who made a splash over here in America.

For any British artist, "breaking America" is a huge deal and a very tough thing to do. There have been artists like Robbie Williams — who are hugely famous and incredibly popular back home — who come to the U.S. with the hopes and dreams to replicate that success and end up being sorely disappointed.

But then there are the newcomers that hit the music scene just last year, like "X-Factor" winner Leona Lewis, Duffy, Adele, Estelle and the Ting Tings.

According to the BPI, one in 10 albums bought in the U.S. was by a British artist. That's big. In fact, that's huge. The figures actually show that the U.K. market share rose from 8.5 percent in 2007, and in Canada, British artists accounted for almost 15 percent of album sales.

Sitting on top of the Brit Pack are, of course, one of the biggest bands in the world: Coldplay. Chris and the boys' Viva la Vida was the second best-selling album in the U.S. last year, selling more than 5 million singles, followed closely by Leona Lewis, who shifted just under 4.75 million albums — impressive.

So here's a toast to the Brit Pack. Keep it coming!

Did you miss Coldplay's Track-By-Track Tour of Viva La Vida? Check it out, after the jump!
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Remember back in April, when we told you that MySpace was starting a new MySpace Music service that would offer a boatload of streaming major-label music and videos, DRM-free downloads and links to concert tickets and merchandise? Well, there's still no word on when the thing might actually launch, but the site announced on Sunday that it had locked down four major sponsors for the venture: Sony Pictures, Toyota, McDonald's and State Farm. Because if there's anything the kids love, it's eating burgers in their Priuses while watching "Spider-Man," secure in the knowledge that they are fully insured.

Read more about the new MySpace Music deals here.

By Matt Harper

If you've been keeping up with our Newsroom blog this week, you might have noticed a disproportionate amount of Pacific Northwest representation. Well, it's no accident, I assure you. A small crew of producers (including myself) trekked out to Portland, Oregon, not so long ago and came back with a bevy of great material.

But when doing a piece like this, you inevitably run into the problem of who to include and who to exclude. Sometimes the decision is easy — there were a lot of acts we reached out to that were on tour or out of town for whatever reason — but generally making the call was a tough one. We inevitably had to leave some people out who we felt should've been represented (ideally though, the piece will encourage people to seek out new music ... not just in Portland, but also in their own hometown).

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