Streaming subscriptions grow to 10% of UK music market

The market for online streaming music subscriptions was worth GBP 103 million in the UK last year, or 10 percent of all recorded music sales, according to figures from the industry association BPI. The BPI estimates that premium subscriptions to audio streaming services such as Spotify and Deezer exceeded the GBP 100 million mark for the first time in 2013, rising from GBP 77 million in 2012. It noted the figure is a conservative estimate, as it excludes revenues from advertising that funds free streams and revenue from audio-visual streaming services such as YouTube. 

UK fans are estimated to have streamed 7.4 billion songs over the past 12 months, double the level of 2012. The Arctic Monkeys were the most streamed artists. The figures on total tracks streamed do include free services and were double the 3.7 billion recorded in 2012. The downloads market grew more slowly, increasing by 6.8 percent to 32.6 million albums downloaded. Single-track download sales came close to matching their all-time record year in 2012 (183.3 million tracks downloaded) at 175.6 million units, according to Official Charts Company data. For a fourth consecutive year over a million singles were downloaded on Christmas Day. 

The digital growth helped offset a 12.8 percent drop in CDs sold, while vinyl continued its revival, with just over 780,000 LPs sold in 2013, double the number in 2012.