Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift Help Drive UK Music Sales to a Ninth-Straight Increase

LONDON — Strong progress in streaming, vinyl and even CD gross sales noticed music spending within the United Kingdom improve for a ninth consecutive yr in 2023, in keeping with annual figures from labels commerce physique BPI printed Thursday (March 14). 

Total U.Okay. recorded music gross sales — comprising digital and bodily revenues, public efficiency rights and sync — climbed 8.1% to 1.43 billion kilos ($1.8 billion) final yr. 

That’s the very best nominal quantity ever achieved within the U.Okay in a single yr, though when the figures are adjusted for inflation, final yr’s document revenues are literally 478 million kilos ($610 million) under the 1.9 billion kilos ($2.4 billion) the place the music trade ought to have been in actual phrases since 2006, the primary yr when public efficiency and sync have been included within the annual complete, stories BPI.

Driving the expansion was an 8.4% year-on-year rise in streaming revenues, which elevated to 962 million kilos ($1.2 billion) and accounted for simply over 67% of annual commerce revenues in 2023 — broadly flat with its share of the U.Okay. market within the earlier 12-month interval. Ten years prior, streaming represented simply 8.6% of British labels’ earnings.

Breaking down streaming income, paid subscriptions to providers like Spotify and Apple Music generated 827 million kilos ($1 billion), up 8.1% on 2022, whereas ad-funded income grew by over 12% to 71 million kilos ($90 million) and video streaming commerce earnings rose 6.9% to 64 million kilos ($82 million).

Download gross sales fell 5.8% to 26 million kilos ($33 million), whereas complete digital income was 989 million kilos ($1.2 billion), up 7.9% on the earlier yr. 

BPI stories that just about 2,250 artists registered greater than 10 million audio streams within the U.Okay. final yr — an increase of 17% over the previous two years —  with Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” the most-streamed monitor, racking up nearly 200 million audio and video streams. Behind Cyrus was Dave and Central Cee’s “Sprinter” (160 million streams) and “Escapism” by Raye that includes 070 Shake (142 million streams).

In phrases of bodily format gross sales, labels and artists acquired 243 million kilos ($310 million) in 2023, up nearly 13% on 2022, when bodily commerce revenues dropped by a tenth.

Fueling bodily’s restoration was a double-digit (18.6%) rise in vinyl album revenues, which totaled £142 million ($181 million) on the again of well-liked new releases by Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones and Lana Del Rey, who had the highest three best-selling vinyl titles within the U.Okay. final yr with 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Hackney Diamonds and Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, respectively.

More surprisingly, CD revenues additionally grew in 2023, up 5.4% year-on-year to only below £100 million ($127 million) with Take That’s This Life the yr’s biggest-selling CD launch. 

Despite the compact disc’s resurgence, which BPI partly attributed to high-profile annual advertising and marketing occasions equivalent to Record Store Day and National Album Day, vinyl moved additional forward because the nation’s main bodily format when it comes to label earnings, making up simply over 58% of all bodily music commerce income, in comparison with 55% the earlier yr.

Public efficiency income climbed 7% year-on-year to 155 million kilos ($198 million), whereas sync gross sales dropped 7.6% to only below 40 million kilos ($51 million). 

BPI’s year-end figures differ from these launched by the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) in January as the 2 organizations have totally different counting strategies. 

BPI’s monetary figures are primarily based on Official Charts Company (OCC) knowledge and a survey of its document label members, which embody the U.Okay. arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, in addition to over 500 impartial labels. ERA’s year-end outcomes, which additionally use OCC knowledge, additionally embody retail worth, therefore the upper numbers.

The U.Okay. is the world’s third greatest recorded music market behind the U.S. and Japan with gross sales of slightly below $1.7 billion in commerce worth, in keeping with IFPI’s 2023 Global Music Report.

“Led by streaming, this ninth consecutive annual rise in recorded music revenues highlights how a balanced and affluent market enabled by vital label funding may also help much more artists to succeed,” stated BPI CEO Jo Twist in an announcement.