The BPI annual yearbook All About The Music 2024 is free to BPI members but can be purchased here.

The BPI annual yearbook All About The Music 2024 is free to BPI members but can be purchased here.

The growing breadth and success of the UK recorded music market is highlighted in the BPI’s All About The Music yearbook, which is published today. Notable among the many insights, independent record labels in 2023 increased for a sixth consecutive year their presence in what is an expanding and diverse market in which more artists representing many styles of music are thriving.

Independently-released music made up 29.2% of Album Equivalent Sales (AES) – its sixth consecutive year of growth and nearly a third higher than in 2017, when indies made up 22.1% of consumption.

This upward trend is documented alongside many other stats and analysis in All About The Music 2024, the 45th edition of the yearbook published by BPI, the trade association for the UK’s record companies and labels, and the representative voice of British recorded music. The yearbook is out now.1

According to BPI analysis based on Official Charts data, more than 60 albums released by independent labels made the weekly Top 10 of the Official Albums Chart in 2023. These included seven chart-topping releases by artists such as rapper Ren, rock bands Enter Shikari and The Reytons and BRIT Awards 2024 with Mastercard Global Icon Award winner Kylie Minogue, as well as other Top 10 hits by a diverse range of talent including BRIT Awards 2024 Best Hip Hop/Grime/Rap Act Casisdead, singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, pop star Claire Richards and punk rock veterans The Damned.

The BPI yearbook also points to a number of big independent successes on the Official Singles Chart last year, including a No.1 hit for now record-breaking BRITs winner RAYE and Top 10 entries for artists such as rappers Central Cee and Bugzy Malone & Teedee. It also showcases an even greater presence for the independent sector in the physical music market with 35.0% of all album sales in 2023. Nearly four in every 10 (39.1%) of vinyl LPs bought across the year were independent products, with more than 200 indie titles selling at least 1,500 copies last year. These included releases by alternative rock band Bdrmm, R&B star Jorja Smith and singer-songwriters Arlo Parks and The Japanese House. Independent releases made up nearly one-third (32.8%) of CDs sold last year.

The increasing popularity of independent music is further highlighted by what the yearbook reveals was almost 400 indie singles and albums reaching new BRIT Certified Platinum, Gold or Silver award levels in 2023. These included titles by singer-songwriter Freya Ridings, dance pioneers The Prodigy and rappers Dave & AJ Tracey going multi-platinum.

Dr. Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive Officer, said: “The UK music industry has always had a healthy and vibrant independent sector made up of an eclectic mix of many hundreds of labels supporting an extraordinary range of British talent. Their success is underlined by a sixth consecutive year of growth, reflecting both the popularity of their artists on streaming platforms and demand for their releases on vinyl and CD, where they continue to find success with music fans across demographics.

“The growing success of the UK’s independent sector is just one of many stories in the BPI’s essential All About The Music 2024. At a time when the ways we can enjoy music continue to evolve, our yearbook unpicks and analyses this ever-complex ecosystem. It shows an energetic and hugely successful UK recorded music sector, driven by our incredible artists and the record labels that support them.”

BPI Council independent representative and Just Another Label Founder, Femi Olasehinde, said: “It’s great to see independents thriving, and not just the more celebrated labels and their artists, but increasingly also a dynamic and entrepreneurial community of much smaller micro-labels and self-releasing artists that are redefining the sector and who, with support, can drive further growth.”

Pop’s popularity growing on vinyl LPs thanks to artists including Taylor Swift

Across its 72 pages, All About The Music 2024 takes an in-depth look at numerous other aspects of the UK recorded music market through charts, commentary and analysis, including the vinyl market whose sales rose in 2023 for a 16th consecutive year. One factor is the rising popularity of pop releases with the genre’s share of vinyl sales lifting from 19.6% in 2022 to nearly a quarter of the market (23.7%) last year, headed by releases from stars including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Lewis Capaldi.

Hip hop/rap grew its share of the vinyl market to 5.3% in 2023, led by a re-issue of De La Soul’s 1989 debut 3 Feet High and Rising, although rock remained comfortably the biggest genre with a 55.5% share. This is reflected by the 10 biggest-selling vinyl artists of 2023 with Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles and Pink Floyd featuring, as well as Blur (The Ballad of Darren) and The Rolling Stones (Hackney Diamonds) who both had chart-topping new studio albums released during the year.

TOP 10 VINYL ARTISTS 2023

  1. Taylor Swift
  2. Lana Del Rey
  3. Pink Floyd
  4. The Rolling Stones
  5. Arctic Monkeys
  6. Fleetwood Mac
  7. The Beatles
  8. Oasis
  9. David Bowie
  10. Blur                     Source: BPI analysis/Official Charts Company        

Consumer research in the yearbook includes a survey of music fans who had bought vinyl in the past year. The study, carried out by the BPI, AudienceNet and Audiomonitor, revealed that 43.5% of those questioned believed their purchase of vinyl was a good way to support artists and retailers, while 39.7% named it as their favourite format to listen to music on. Among those questioned, 30.5% said there were some artists they tried to buy everything they could on the format, while more than a fifth (22.2%) had bought vinyl on National Album Day or Record Store Day.

1The BPI annual yearbook All About The Music 2024 is free to BPI members but can be purchased here.