Music streaming experiences ‘explosive growth’ in United Kingdom

The Album Equivalent Sales (AES) industry metric – which measures the volume of physical and digital album sales combined with converted single track download sales and songs streamed on audio streaming services – showed overall recorded music consumption up 4 percent year-on-year.

However, over 11.5 billion tracks have been streamed in the United Kingdom so far this year, meaning last year’s total will be easily smashed by the year’s end.

The news comes after a seismic few months for the streaming industry, with the launch of Tidal and Apple Music both threatening the dominance of Spotify. “With British music on a high around the world, we look to the future with real confidence”.

It’s been quite the week for online music streaming services.

Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson is the most streamed track of 2015, with a registered number of forty-five million on audio streaming hits.

The marked increase has been attributed to the growing number and increasing competition of streaming platforms.

The BPI also cast its eye over video streams via services such as YouTube. The number is nearly double from last year’s number in this same period that stands at 6.4 billion.

The slowing in the decline in physical music sales has also contributed to the improving picture.

As you’d expect, this surge in the popularity of music streaming means that CD and digital album sales are in decline.

One of the biggest contributors to the music turnaround however is the performance of the compilations market, which continues to flourish.

However, while streaming figures have shot up, it’s unclear whether this equates to an increase in revenue for artists.

So far, 12 compilation albums have sold over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom this year, while Now 90 has already outsold the entire annual total achieved by its 2014 equivalent, Now 87. Meanwhile vinyl continues to experience something of a resurgence, with a 56.3 per cent boost in demand leading to a 20-year high.