UK music revenues highest in over two decades thanks to streaming following a 2.3% increase in overall entertainment sales to £12 Bn in 2024, according to annual figures released by digital entertainment and retail association ERA.
Consumption reached the equivalent of 201.4m albums a year. Streaming alone generated the equivalent of 178m albums, exceeding the record of 172m albums sold in 2004 at the tail-end of the CD boom. Meanwhile consumer spending on recorded music – both subscriptions and purchases – reached £2,389.8m overtaking the previous high of £2,221.7m achieved in 2001.
The success of the music market in 2024 is the most striking feature of ERA’s annual review of music, video and games sales. Preliminary figures show music revenues grew by 7.4% in 2024, ahead of video, up 6.9%, and games, which declined 4.4%, following a drop in physical games sales of more than a third in 12 months.
ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “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.”
| UK Entertainment Sales in 2024 (£m) | |||||
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | % change vs 2023 | ||
| Music | Physical | £280.4 | £311.0 | £330.1 | 6.2% |
| Downloads | £45.4 | £42.7 | £41.3 | -3.2% | |
| Streaming | £1,699.1 | £1,872.0 | £2,018.4 | 7.8% | |
| Total Music | £2,024.9 | £1,872.0 | £2,389.8 | 7.4% | |
| Video | Physical Retail | £209.0 | £169.7 | £156.3 | -7.9% |
| Physical Rental | £7.7 | £5.6 | £4.5 | -19.9% | |
| Digital | £4,281.7 | £4,502.8 | £4,841.3 | 7.5% | |
| Total Video | £4,498.4 | £4,678.1 | £5,002.0 | 6.9% | |
| Games | Physical | £517.9 | £495.4 | £324.4 | -34.5% |
| Digital | £4,205.0 | £4,336.3 | £4,292.8 | -1.0% | |
| Total Games | £4,722.9 | £4,831.7 | £4,617.2 | -4.4% | |
| Total Entertainment | Physical | £1,015.0 | £981.7 | £815.3 | -16.9% |
| Digital (inc streaming) | £10,231.1 | £10,753.8 | £11,193.7 | 4.1% | |
| Total Entertainment | £11,246.1 | £11,735.5 | £12,009.0 | 2.3% | |
UK Music Sales in 2024
Music’s 2024 was characterised by growth for both streaming and physical formats. Streaming services including Spotify, YouTube Music and Amazon saw revenues from music streaming increase by 7.8% to £2,018.4m. Vinyl album sales grew even faster by 10.5% to £196m. CD album revenues were flat at £126.2m.
The biggest-selling album of the year was Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department with sales of 783,820 albums, including 111,937 copies on vinyl, which also made it 2024’s biggest-selling vinyl album. The biggest single of the year was Noah Kahan’s ‘Stick Season’, generating the equivalent of 1.99m sales.
Further details on Video and Games sales can be found here.
