The UK recorded music market achieved a decade of continuous growth in 2024 with revenue rising by 4.8% to £1.49 billion.
The figures from the BPI cover revenues generated through streaming, purchases across physical/download formats, public performance rights and sync.
This latest increase means that over the last 10 years the market has grown by more than 80% to a new nominal high. However, once adjusted for inflation, annual revenue is still hundreds of millions of pounds lower than it was in 2006, the first year public performance and sync were included in the calculations.
The streaming market rose to record levels in 2024 to break the £1 billion barrier for the first time, in part thanks to streaming platforms raising their subscription prices. Combined subscription, ad-supported and video-streaming revenue totaled £1.02 billion to make up 68.1% of recorded music revenue (67.5% in 2023).
While streaming now accounts for an ever greater share of overall revenue, it experienced a slow-down in growth last year with its annual rise dropping to 5.7% from 8.4% the year before.
Since 2014, annual streaming revenue has increased by more than 800% in total to become the main format for recorded music.
The BPI credited the work of UK record companies, who make significant investments each year to support the careers of artists, including through A&R, marketing and promotion – well over £2 billion in the five years between 2018-2023.
Although generating more revenue than in any year since 2017, growth in the physical music market also slowed last year, despite high vinyl and CD sales of new albums by artists including Coldplay, Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift.
Total revenue from vinyl, CD and other physical music formats increased by 1.3% in 2024 to £246.5 million, compared to a rise of 12.8% the year before (when inflation was higher).
Within this, revenue from vinyl LPs rose by 2.9% to £145.7m. Having climbed the previous year, CD revenue fell by a modest 0.5% in 2024 to stand at £96.7m.
Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI chief executive officer, said: “After a decade of growth, it is all too easy to take for granted the success of UK recorded music and the vital role record businesses play in this, underpinned by copyright, by investing billions to nurture and promote diverse talent from across the UK. But in the face of intensifying global competition, it’s essential they’re empowered by a supportive policy environment to keep British artists on the world’s top step.
“Crucially, this requires the exciting potential of AI to be realised by the government safeguarding the UK’s gold-standard copyright framework and not siding with global big tech at the expense of human artistry and our world-leading creative industries.”
YolanDa Brown OBE DL – artist, music education campaigner and BPI chair, said: “Given the colossal effort it took initially to turn around years of decline, it is a real cause for celebration that the UK recorded music market has now been on the rise again for an entire decade. I am particularly proud of the part played in this comeback by the UK’s eclectic and vastly talented artist community, backed by their record labels. At a time when they are facing escalating competition from overseas music markets, we need to ensure our labels are valued and are in a position to be able to fully support their artists’ careers.”
We need to ensure our labels are valued and are in a position to be able to fully support their artists’ careers
YolanDa Brown
Paid subscriptions made up 86% of UK streaming market
Ad-supported audio revenue enjoyed the biggest annual growth in the streaming market last year with an 8.9% increase to £77.9m.
However, paid subscriptions to services such as Amazon, Apple, Spotify and YouTube continue to make up the vast majority of total streaming revenue. On the back of a 5.9% revenue increase, these brought in £875.5m in 2024 to account for more than 86% of the £1.02 billion UK streaming market.
Digital download revenue dropped by 6.6% to £24.3m, marking a second year in a row of modest declines after the market previously endured a series of double-digital percentage falls.
Four tracks each generated more than 200m audio and video streams in the UK across the year, led by Noah Kahan’s Stick Season with 233.1m streams and also including Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things (219.3m streams), Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter (202.8m streams) and Lose Control by Teddy Swims (201.6m streams).
Over a dozen other tracks accumulated 100m audio and video streams in 2024. These included Stargazing, the breakthrough hit by BRITs Rising Star 2025 winner Myles Smith (pictured at the ceremony), as well as releases by fellow UK artists Cassö, Raye and D-Block Europe (Prada) and Artemas (I Like The Way You Kiss Me).
New releases help to drive vinyl growth
Over the last decade, the physical market has become a fan product and its growth has been driven by frontline labels. Revenue from vinyl has grown by more than 650% from £19.4m in 2014 to £145.7m last year.
During this period, brand new releases have played an increasingly significant role in accelerating growth, a factor underpinned by the biggest-selling titles each year. Back in 2014, half of the year’s Top 10 sellers were catalogue titles, but in 2024 eight of the year-end Top 10 were current releases, led by Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and also including albums by Chappell Roan (The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess), Charli XCX (Brat) and Fontaines D.C. (Romance). But as ERA’s Yearbook shows, catalogue remains the main driver of sales.
While CD revenue eased back slightly, dropping by 0.5% to £96.7m, the long-term trends suggest the format can endure. At the start of the decade, CD revenue was hit by a series of year-on-year double-digit percentage declines, but over the last three years it has stabilised to become a £90m-plus annual market.
Like vinyl, the top of the CD market is led by the popularity of new releases on the format, with 2024’s Top 10 sellers all current releases, including new albums by Coldplay (Moon Music) and Taylor Swift (The Tortured Poets Department), as well as breakthrough artists such as Sabrina Carpenter (Short N’ Sweet) and Teddy Swims (I’ve Tried Everything But Therapy - Part 1).
Sync revenue reached new annual peak
Income generated by public performance and the broadcast of recorded music on TV and Radio, increased by 5.6% year-on-year to a record £161.7m in 2024.
Income from synchronisation, from use in visual media such as film, TV, games and advertising, also reached a new annual high last year with an 11.3% rise to £43.9m.
PHOTO: BRITS/John Marshall – JM Enternational
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