UK recorded music revenues up 4.7% in 2022 reaching £1.32 Bn according to a recent report by the BPI. This marked the sector’s eighth consecutive year of revenue growth, led by streaming. However, when adjusted for inflation, the figure falls hundreds of millions of pounds below the total reported in 2006. Growth in 2022 was again fuelled by climbing streaming revenues, which rose 6.3% year-on-year to £885 million and which now account for 67.2% of industry revenue – up from 66.2% in 2021.
Streaming and digital revenue
Streaming revenue of £885 million (up 6.3%) was shaped largely by paid subscriptions to services such as Amazon, Apple, Spotify and YouTube, rising by 4.8% to £762.8 million (up from £727.6m in 2021). Ad-funded streaming income, though worth less than a tenth of the value of subscriptions, none-the-less grew by over a fifth in 2022 (22.3%) to £62.5 million (up from £51.1m). Revenue from digital downloads continues to decline as consumption accelerates its shift towards streaming – falling by 17.5% (less than the 23.2% drop in 2021), with downloaded tracks and albums still generating £27.6 million.
The year’s most-streamed track was Harry Styles’ As It Was (Song of the Year at the 2023 BRITs), followed by Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits (who also had Shivers in the top 5), Glass Animals’ Heat Waves, which topped the US charts, and Go by former BRIT School student turned pop sensation Cat Burns.
Physical formats – vinyl, CD & cassette
Revenue from physical formats fell 10.5% to £215.7 million, with rising revenue of £119.5 million from the purchase of albums on vinyl up 3.1% helping to offset a 23.7% drop in CD revenue to £89.5 million.
Vinyl’s continuing popularity, boosted by events including Record Store Day and National Album Day, meant that revenue from the sale of LPs, which now makes up 55% of earnings from physical formats, overtook the amount generated by CD (£89.5m) for the first time since 1987. Cassette sales weighed in with over half a million pounds of sales, with the biggest sellers Arctic Monkeys’ The Car, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, Florence + The Machine’s Dance Fever, Muse’s Will Of The People, and 23 by Central Cee.
Sync (music used in film and other soundtracks and in advertising) has been an area of revenue growth for labels in recent years. Disrupted by the pandemic in the preceding period, revenue increased by 39% in 2022 to reach £42.7 million. Income from the public performance of music, which was similarly impacted by the pandemic, also showed encouraging growth, up 23% in 2022 to stand at £143.4 million.
