April 16, 2018

The report shows 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% in 2017 to stand at £839.4 million.

This represents the fastest rate of growth since the height of Britpop in 1995, when revenues increased by 10.7 %. However, it should be noted that total income remains nearly one third lower than the peak year of 2001, when it topped £1.2 billion. The increase in 2017 was driven by a 9.5% leap in music consumption, which the BPI reported earlier this year.

Revenues from streaming grew by 41% and the format now makes up nearly half (46%) of industry turnover. Subscription was the streaming channel that added the most to the overall increase, rising by 45% to £346.9 million. Growth in ad-supported audio and video streaming was smaller, though between them they contributed £42 million to industry turnover. This figure would have been much higher, were it not for the continuing distortion in the market place that allows some “user upload” platforms to pay much lower royalties than competing digital music survives. The Government has pledged to end this “Value Gap”.

Last year’s growth was also driven by the success of British artists, both established, such as Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Little Mix, and more recent major breakthroughs, such as Rag’n’Bone Man, Stormzy and Dua Lipa.

BPI says that the increased income from sales of physical formats was less expected and is attributable to a number of factors, particularly the continued growth in vinyl LP income (+24%), which is now a fifth of the size of the CD market, and the impact of big-selling titles in boosting resilient demand for CD, including by Ed Sheeran, Rag’n’Bone Man, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. To read BPI’s press release in full, click here.