LONDON — Strong growth in streaming, vinyl and even CD sales saw UK music spending rise for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, according to annual figures from trade body BPI released on Thursday (March 14).
Total UK recorded music sales – which include digital and physical revenue, public performance rights and sync – rose 8.1% to 1.43 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) last year.
This is the highest nominal amount ever achieved in the UK in one year, although when the figures are adjusted for inflation, last year's record revenue is actually £478m ($610m) down from 1.9 billion pounds ($2.4 billion) where the music industry should be in real terms since 2006, the first year public performance and timing were included in the annual total, the BPI says.
Driving growth was an 8.4% year-on-year rise in streaming revenue, which rose to £962 million ($1.2 billion) and accounted for just over 67% of annual commercial revenue in 2023 — broadly flat with its UK market share over the previous 12 months. Ten years ago, streaming accounted for just 8.6% of UK labels' income.
Breaking down streaming revenue, paid subscriptions to services such as Spotify and Apple Music generated £827m ($1bn), up 8.1% from 2022, while ad-funded revenue grew by over 12% to 71 million pounds ($90 million) and video streaming Commercial revenue rose 6.9% to 64 million pounds ($82 million).
Download sales fell 5.8% to 26 million pounds ($33 million), while total digital revenue was 989 million pounds ($1.2 billion), up 7.9% on the previous year.
The BPI reports that almost 2,250 artists recorded more than 10 million audio streams in the UK last year – a 17% increase over the past two years – with Miley Cyrus' “Flowers” the most streamed track, garnering almost 200 million audio and streams video. Behind Cyrus was Dave and Central Cee's “Sprinter” (160 million streams) and Raye's “Escapism” featuring 070 Shake (142 million streams).
In terms of physical sales, labels and artists received 243 million pounds ($310 million) in 2023, an increase of almost 13% compared to 2022, when revenue from physical sales fell by a tenth.
Fueling the physical recovery was double-digit growth (18.6%) in vinyl album revenue, which totaled £142m ($181m) on the back of popular new releases by Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones and Lana Del Rey , which had the top. three biggest selling vinyl titles in the UK last year with 1989 (Taylor Edition), Hackney Diamonds and Did you know there is a tunnel under Ocean Blvdrespectively.
More surprisingly, CD revenue is also up in 2023, up 5.4% year-on-year to just under £100m ($127m) with Take That's This life the biggest selling CD release of the year.
Despite the compact disc's resurgence, which the BPI attributed in part to high-profile annual marketing events such as Record Store Day and National Album Day, vinyl went further as the country's top physical format in terms of record label revenue, accounting for little more than 58% of all revenues from the physical music trade, compared to 55% the previous year.
Revenue from public performances rose 7% year-on-year to 155 million pounds ($198 million), while sync sales fell 7.6% to just under 40 million pounds ($51 million).
The BPI's year-end figures differ from those published by the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) in January, as the two organizations have different counting methods.
BPI's financial figures are based on data from the Official Charts Company (OCC) and a survey of its label members, which includes the UK arms of Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, as well as over 500 independent companies. ERA's year-end results, which also use OCC data, also include retail value, hence the higher numbers.
The UK is the third largest recorded music market in the world behind the US and Japan with sales of just under $1.7 billion in commercial value, according to IFPI's World Music Report 2023.
“Driven by streaming, this ninth consecutive annual increase in recorded music revenue highlights how a balanced and prosperous market fueled by significant record label investment can help even more artists succeed,” said BPI CEO Joe Twist in a statement.
