British Music Clings To Streaming As Album Sales Fall In 2013

The British music industry are for the first time pushing the growth of streaming services as traditional album sales continued to fall in 2013.

BPI, the chief industry body, have released their figures for 2013, with the overall retail value for albums, singles and audio streams dropping 0.5 percent to £1,043 million ($1,945 million). Album sales dropped 6.4 percent, largely due to a 12.8 percent drop in CD sales, with 60,600,000 scans still making up over 64 percent of album sales.

For the first time revenue from streaming services has been included in the market figures, with premium paid subscriptions accounting for £103 million ($192 million) – the first time it cracked the 100 million mark. The BPI have said that it is still a conservative figure as it doesn't including advertising revenue for free streaming services or revenue from audio-visual streaming, such as YouTube.

While the revenue is up from £77 in 2012, the number of tracks streamed has doubled from 2012, with 7.4 billion streams last year up from 3.7 billion in 2012.

Kim Bayley, Director General of the Entertainment Retailers' Association, said, “Retail investment in the future of music reached an all-time high in 2013 as streaming services scaled up their offering. It means UK music fans now have an unprecedented choice of ways to enjoy the music they love… As long as labels keep producing hits, our members will be there to deliver them to music fans.”

One of the biggest growth areas in the market was the resurgence of vinyl, with 781,000 copies sold in 2013 – up 100.8 percent of 2012. It's the largest number sold in 15 years, when 817,000 records were sold in 1997.

ARIA will release Australia's end-of-year charts next week.

THE UK'S TOP SELLING ALBUMS OF 2013

1. One Direction – Midnight Memories
2. Emeli Sande – Our Version Of Events
3. Michael Buble – To Be Loved
4. Robbie Williams – Swings Both Ways
5. Olly Murs – Right Place Right Time
6. Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox
7. Rod Stewart – Time
8. Arctic Monkeys – AM
9. Gary Barlow – Since I Saw You Last
10. Ellie Goulding – Halcyon

THE UK'S TOP SELLING SINGLES OF 2013

1. Robin Thicke, T.I., Pharrell – Blurred Lines
2. Daft Punk featuring Pharrell Williams – Get Lucky
3. Avicii – Wake Me Up
4. Passenger – Let Her Go
5. Naughty Boy featuring Sam Smith – La La La
6. Katy Perry – Roar
7. Macklemore/Ryan Lewis/Wanz – Thrift Shop
8. Pink featuring Nate Ruess – Just Give Me A Reason
9. OneRepublic – Counting Stars
10. Justin Timberlake – Mirrors

THE UK'S MOST STREAMED ARTISTS OF 2013

1. Arctic Monkeys
2. Bastille
3. Daft Punk
4. Eminem
5. One Direction
6. Imagine Dragons
7. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
8. Calvin Harris
9. Drake
10. Rihanna