Music Buyers Move Toward Streaming

More people are turning to music streaming services, thanks to the evolution of digital technology and the increased ownership of tablets and smartphones, according to the British Phonographic Industry.

For the first time, streaming was worth more than £100 million to the recorded music industry in 2013, accounting for 10 percent of the value of UK recorded music sales.

There were 7.4 billion streams, doubling last year’s figure.

Those pushed record business earnings beyond £1 billion again.

For the fourth year in a row, more than 1 million songs were downloaded on Christmas Day.

“As digital music moves into the streaming era, the prospects for future growth in the UK music market look strong,” said BPI chief exec Geoff Taylor.

Overall, what has been a shrinking business has now become more of a stagnant one. In 2012, sales revenues totaled £1.048 billion, while last year clocked in at £1.043 billion.

CDs are still the most favoured method of buying music, accounting for 64 percent of the market, but that’s 12.8 percent down on 2012.

Vinyl continues to grow in popularity as album sales were 780,000, more than doubling the previous year.