Music sales in the United Kingdom reached UK£2.4 billion (A$4.7 billion) in 2024, a new record.
Streaming service subscriptions represented the vast majority of revenue in the music sector at almost 85%, according to the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA).
“2024 was a banner year for music, with streaming and vinyl taking the sector to all-time-high records in both value and volume,” said ERA CEO Kim Bayley. “This is the stunning culmination of music’s comeback which has seen sales more than double since their low point in 2013. We can now say definitively — music is back.”
U.K. music revenues last year grew by 7.4% in total.
Physical sales were up 6.2%, while streaming revenues increased by 7.8% over 2023. Music download revenues declined by 3.2%.
Vinyl record sales soared to UK£196 million, a 10.5% increase over 2023. The best-selling record in the U.K. last year was Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, with 111,937 vinyl copies sold.
“With nearly 14% of revenues still coming from physical, music shows the benefits of having a mixed physical-digital ecology,” said Bayley. “We continue to believe that digital and physical channels are complementary and vital for the health of the entertainment market overall.”
Subscriptions to video streaming services drew UK£4.46 billion in revenue in the U.K. last year, according to the ERA. This is an 8.3% increase over 2023, and represents almost 90% of the video sector’s revenue.
Video gaming revenue reached UK£4.6 billion in the U.K. in 2024, declining 4.4%. Subscription revenues grew by 12%, while PC downloads decreased by 5%, digital console games fell by 15%, and physical games were down 35%.
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