Report: Streaming Services Now Account for Majority of Music Consumption in Britain

The Associated Press

byCharlie Nash3 Jan 20180

3 Jan, 20183 Jan, 2018

Digital music streaming services now reportedly account for the majority of music consumption in Britain.

According to the Telegraph, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) revealed that “excluding radio last year Britons did more than half their listening via the internet, rising to more than 1.5 billion streams in a single week in December.”

“The claim that streaming accounted for more than half of overall music consumption is based on estimates of listening habits,” they explained, adding that, “The trend is nevertheless supported by separate financial data collected by the Entertainment Retailers Association, a trade group comprising streaming services and physical record sellers including Amazon and HMV.”

It was also revealed that “streaming revenues jumped by 42pc last year to £577m, more than outweighing a steep fall in download sales and a more gentle decline in sales of physical singles and albums,” while physical music sales were somewhat saved by a “booming vinyl market,” which meant physical sales were down by just 3 percent.

“Some 4.1 million LPs were sold, 20 times as many as a decade earlier, when interest in the analogue format was at its all-time low. Last year’s sales were worth £88m and accounted for one in every 10 physical music purchases,” the Telegraph reported. “Although Ed Sheeran’s latest album topped the both the streaming and vinyl charts last year, the vinyl chart was otherwise dominated by revived classics such as the 40th anniversary pressing of Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and a reissue of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.”

This week, Wixen Music Publishing, which administers the songs of Tom Petty among other artists, filed a $1.6 billion copyright lawsuit against Spotify, one of the largest digital music streaming services.

According to Spin, “Wixen Music Publishing filed the lawsuit in California federal court on December 29, alleging the streaming giant is using Petty’s ‘Free Fallin’ and tens of thousands of other songs without license or compensation.”

Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington and Gab @Nash, or like his page at Facebook.

Original Article