- BPI’s yearbook All About The Music 2018 reports a 10.6% rise in recorded music revenues in 2017
- UK record labels’ income records highest annual growth since 1995
- Revenues of £840m generated via sales & streams of music and ‘sync’ see a return to 2010 levels
- Increase is driven by a 45% leap in streaming subscriptions and the continuing vinyl revival
The BPI’s All About The Music 2018 – is published today and is out now.
It leads with the news that UK record company trade income (revenues generated through sales and streams across all music formats combined with earnings from ‘sync’) rose by 10.6 per cent in 2017 to stand at £839.5 million. This represents the highest rate of growth since 1995, when revenues rose by 10.7 per cent. The increase in 2017 was driven by a 9.5 per cent leap in music consumption.
Now in its 39th edition and with an introduction by BPI CEO Geoff Taylor4, this annual yearbook gives a detailed insight into the year in UK recorded music in 2017 through facts, figures and analysis. The 76 page report fully evaluates last year’s trends in UK music consumption with chapters on sales, market breakdowns, consumer analysis, retailing and how UK music fares in the world market.
See Selected Insights for details of key contents.
All About the Music 2018 is free to all BPI members but is also available for purchased (as a physical hard copy or in digital format) from the BPI’s website: https://www.bpi.co.uk/shop/
All About The Music 2018 – selected insights
Size of the UK Market
- Industry income up in 2017; streaming revenue up by 41.1%
- Music consumption (in terms of Album Equivalent Sales) up by 9.5% in 2017.
Sales Analysis
- Eight of the top 10 artist albums of 2017 were by British artists
- Vinyl accounted for one in every 15 album purchases in 2017
- Three quarter of albums purchased are now on physical format, for first time since 2011
- Eight of the top 10 singles of 2017 were by British artists
- 52 tracks were streamed over 50m times in 2017 (up from 36 in 2016)
- New titles (released in 2017) accounted for over a third of vinyl LP sales in 2017
- Albums released in 2017 comprised just over a third of overall album sales
- Tracks released in or before 2015 comprised well over half of track streams in 2017
- Christmas tracks are among the most popular catalogue streams: 12 were played over 10m times
Market Breakdowns
- The number of tracks being streamed at least 1m times was up by 50% in 2017
- The number of vinyl LPs selling at least one copy rose by 10% in 2017
- Friday is now the most popular day of the week for album purchasing . It remains the biggest day for streaming but Saturday is still the key day for track downloading
- Kanye West’s The Life Of Pablo became the first album to go Gold on streaming alone in 2017. Drake’s More Life went Platinum without having been released physically
- Physical still accounted for the majority of chart-eligible sales of most albums at No.1 on the weekly chart
- UK artists remain top of artist nationality table for albums, with increased share
- UK artists top of singles artist nationality table after being 2nd to USA in 2016
- Pop edges Rock in albums consumption but is a more clear leader in singles. Hip Hop in the ascendancy in both
Music Consumers
- The percentage of adults over 16 either purchasing music or using a paid streaming service rose in 2017
- Men are still dominating as users of streaming services and music purchasers, but the percentage of of women who are streaming is growing
- Kantar Worldpanel report strong growth in percentage of respondents classed as ‘Young Family’ or ‘Middle Family’ who are using paid streaming services. This may be due to the effect of smart speakers
- Futuresource say 3.5m smart speakers had been sold since launch by the end of 2017
- GfK say the turntable market was worth £30m in 2017
- Kantar say over a quarter of active users of turntables were aged 45-54
- 3% of active users of turntables were women
- According to AudienceNet, over three quarters of people listen to music on a typical day
Retailing and Services
- The share of albums bought on impulse is dropping
- Music purchasers remain very loyal to their favourite services – two thirds of buyers used only one retailer all year
- Gifts accounted for about a third of physical format expenditure in 2017, but this rose to almost half around Christmas
UK Music in the World Market
- UK artists’ share of music consumption was down in the USA in 2017, but up in Canada
- UK artists’ share was up in Germany and France – Ed Sheeran and Rag’n’Bone Man were among those artists travelling well
- The Netherlands and Australia continue to be especially receptive to the music of UK acts
