Music consumption in UK up 8.2% in 2020 with 155 million albums or their equivalent either streamed or purchased with growth led by streaming fuelled by label investment. The figures were released today by the BPI, based on Official Charts Company data. The increase in consumption was achieved despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a devastating effect on the live music sector. Demand initially dipped around the start of the first lockdown, but listening rebounded across streaming and physical formats and grew throughout the year.
With nearly 200 artists achieving over 100 million streams or more in the UK over the past 12 months, their success contributed to an overall total of 139 billion audio streams in 2020, up by more than a fifth (22.0%). Streaming now accounts for four-fifths (80.6%) of UK music consumption, with people of all ages using it for their daily music choices, but also collecting their favourite albums on CD, vinyl and other physical formats.
The top 10 streaming artists in 2020 each achieved over half a billion streams in the UK alone. But below them in the top 200 there were many artists achieving more than 200 million streams, while further down still, even artists ranking between 500th– 1,000th achieved between 43 million and 21 million UK streams. A million streams may sound a lot but 8,000 different acts now exceed this threshold annually.
Physical sales are still important
Vinyl sales growth increased by over a tenth (11.5%) to almost 5 million (4.8m) copies purchased representing a 13th year of consecutive growth. The continuing revival of the audio cassette, which almost doubled (94.7%) in sales to 156,542 copies – the highest total since 2003 – also demonstrated the fan appeal of music in tangible formats as a complement to streaming.
Demand for CD continued to reflect long-term trends, but, with 16 million copies sold representing 10.3% of recorded music consumption, the format continues to show its resilience and plays a key role in shaping chart success. Physical remains a ‘kingmaker’ for No.1 albums: in the majority of weeks (28) in 2020, it accounted for 50% of chart-eligible sales of the Official Charts No.1 artist album. Digital albums also continued their long-term trend, down by 19.0%, but they still contributed 5.9 million unit purchases.
British artists dominate the charts
Eight of the best-selling artists on album format were British, led by Lewis Capaldi, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa – all three of whom also achieved nearly half a billion streams or more in 2020 in the UK alone and billions more streams globally. Their chart success made it an all-British Top-3.
UK Top 5 albums of 2020
- Lewis Capaldi: Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent
- Harry Styles: Fine Line
- Dua Lipa: Future Nostalgia
- Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
- Stormzy: Heavy Is The Head
