Streaming and vinyl success in 2015
An excellent and informative article has been posted on the BBC website about the huge rise in streaming, combined with the continued resurgence of vinyl, that has helped keep the British music industry buoyant in 2015. It really is worth reading if you are a writer and/or a performer/artist. Here are some key points:
According to trade body BPI, 26.8 billion songs were streamed last year, a rise of 82%.
Vinyl sales jumped 64% to 2.1 million, and retailer HMV claimed in a report that it sold a turntable every minute over Christmas.
Overall, the retail value of UK music rose from £1.03bn in 2014 to £1.06bn, the first increase since 2004. This figure includes the retail value of physical albums – CD, vinyl, cassette and minidisc – alongside digital downloads and an estimate of revenues from streaming subscriptions.
Despite constant reports in the media about their demise, CDs are proving to be more resilient than analysts had thought. They remain the dominant format, with 53.6 million discs sold last year, down 3.9% from 2014. Recent research from the BPI has suggested that people who subscribe to streaming services are beginning to buy CDs and vinyl as permanent mementoes of their favourite tracks.
To read the excellent BBC article in full, which includes some interesting graphs/tables and a listing of the top selling albums of 2015, click here