Streaming market exceeds £1 billion in the UK for the first time
Music streaming also helped overall music sales increase by more than 7%
A report released by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has found that sales from music streaming last year exceeded £1 billion in the UK for the first time.
The figures echo another recent report from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) which said that UK consumers streamed 114 billion songs through official platforms in 2019. The ERA's information also revealed that music streaming helped overall music sales in the country increase by more than 7% bringing the figure up to £1.4 billion for 2019 in the UK.
There's bad news for physical sales in the ERA's report however with sales revenue falling by 17% to £318 million in the country for the last 12 months. The figures for vinyl did increase however with the trend back towards vinyl records showing no signs of letting up just yet. Sales rose by 6.4% to £97 million for 2019.
"As more and more people sign up to streaming services, it obviously becomes a challenge to maintain the same rate of growth," said the ERA's CEO, Kim Bayley. "But the fact is UK music fans spent £190 million more on subscription streaming services in 2019 than they did the year before."
In the streaming market, Spotify recently begun advertising its 320 kbps bitrate that it offers to Premium subscribers as "high-quality sound", and just last week revealed that it would suspend all political advertisements from the service in the US.
