UK music consumption hits new high with record-breaking results in 2024

Streaming and the vinyl revival drive music consumption to a 20-year high

UK music consumption record high 2024

Streaming success and the vinyl revival drove UK music consumption and recorded music revenues to a 20-year high in 2024, annual figures released by digital entertainment and retail association ERA reveal.

With results exceeding the highs of the CD era, consumption reached the equivalent of 201.4 million albums a year in 2024. Streaming alone generated the equivalent of 178m albums, exceeding the previous record of 172 million albums sold in 2004 towards the end of the CD boom.

Consumer spending on recorded music, via subscriptions and purchases, also soared; reaching £2,389.8 million to overtake the previous 2001 high of £2,221.7 million.

UK music consumption record high 2024

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ERA CEO Kim Bayley says:

"2024 was a banner year for music, with streaming and vinyl taking the sector to all-time-high records in both value and volume.

"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."

Having now published the definitive statistics on the value of the UK music, video and games sectors for 25 years, ERA's preliminary figures show music revenues grew by 7.4% in 2024, ahead of video, up 6.9%.

UK music consumption record high 2024

MORE: The Official best-selling vinyl albums and singles of 2024

Music’s 2024 was characterised by growth across streaming and physical formats.

Streaming services including Spotify, YouTube Music and Amazon saw revenues from music streaming increase by 7.8% to £2,018.4 million. Vinyl album sales grew even faster by 10.5% to £196m. CD album revenues remained flat at £126.2 million.

The biggest-selling album of the year was Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department with sales of 783,820, including 111,937 copies on vinyl, which also made it 2024’s biggest-selling vinyl album.

The biggest single of the 2024 was Noah Kahan’s Stick Season, generating the equivalent of 1.99 million sales.

ERA CEO Kim Bayley adds:

"With nearly 14% of revenues still coming from physical, music shows the benefits of having a mixed physical-digital ecology.

"We continue to believe that digital and physical channels are complementary and vital for the health of the entertainment market overall."

Article images: Getty.

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J

jeromesh

0

Tis a pity that the artists aren't getting their share if this is the case.