UK Recorded Music Revenues Rose For A Ninth Consecutive Year In 2023
• UK recorded music revenue increased 8.1% to £1.43bn last year with UK record label A&R and marketing support helping a record 2,245 artists surpass 10 million annual audio streams.
• The revenue total is the highest nominal amount to date, but, once adjusted for CPI-based inflation, is still nearly half a billion pounds below where the industry should be in real terms – representing even more that could have been invested in supporting artist success.
• Streaming income was up 8.4% to £962m and made up 67.4% of total revenue.
• Vinyl LPs led the physical market for a second consecutive year, rising by 18.6% in revenue to £141.6m, while CD sales returned to growth.
BPI CEO Dr Jo Twist calls for UK record labels to be supported so they can keep investing in British music and in the success of even more artists.
UK recorded music revenue increased by 8.1% year-on-year to £1.43 billion in 2023 as a record number of artists are benefiting from the streaming market, reports the BPI, the association for the UK’s record companies and labels, and the representative voice of British recorded music.
The figure, which includes revenue from synchronisation (sync) and public performance, marks the ninth consecutive year of growth and has been fuelled by UK record labels investing hundreds of millions of pounds annually to support artists’ careers through A&R, marketing and promotion.
As the market continues to grow, this investment in artists is helping more of them achieve at least 10 million audio streams of their music in the UK each year. In 2023 2,245 artists surpassed this total, 17% more than two years earlier, with many accumulating tens of millions globally also.
The total revenue figure for last year was the highest nominal annual amount achieved to date for recorded music in the UK. However, once adjusted for inflation using CPI trade revenue, this was £478m below where the industry should have been in real terms since 2006, the first year when public performance and sync were included in the annual total. Based on RPI as a measure, the difference in 2023 was even more stark at £771m lower.
Streaming outperformed the overall market, up 8.4% to £962.1m, representing 67.4% of recorded music revenue (67.3% in 2022). This has cemented the status of streaming as the industry’s main revenue generator, having in 2013 accounted for only 8.6%. Revenue from physical formats also grew, 12.8% in 2023, having fallen by a tenth (10.5%) the previous year. This was led by a double-digit percentage rise in vinyl LP sales, as well as CD revenue recovering. Vinyl revenue was up by 18.6% y-o-y to £141.6m, while CD posted a 5.4% increase to £97.2m, following a 23.7% fall in 2022. A year after generating more trade revenue than CD for the first time since 1987, vinyl moved further ahead when it made up 58.2% of all physical music revenue, compared to 55.4% in 2022.
Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive Officer, said: “Led by streaming, this ninth consecutive annual rise in recorded music revenues highlights how a balanced and prosperous market enabled by significant label investment can help even more artists to succeed. It would be all too easy to take this growth for granted, but at a time when British music faces unprecedented competition from around the world and challenges at home, it’s vital the right conditions remain in place here to give British music every opportunity to thrive.”
YolanDa Brown OBE DL – artist, music education campaigner and BPI Chair, said: “It’s fantastic that the UK recorded music market hit a new high last year, which is testament to all the incredible music that diverse artists are creating, including across new genres, with the support of their record labels. As someone who has such fond memories going into record shops as a child to buy CDs, I am particularly pleased that the popularity of this wonderful format is showing signs of a revival, something that we’ve been seeing with vinyl for well over a decade now., as the ONS has now picked up on.”
Streaming revenue reached a record £962 million in 2023
Paid subscriptions to services such as Amazon, Apple, Deezer, Spotify and YouTube made up nearly 86% of the £962.1 million of revenue generated by music streaming in the UK in 2023. Paid subscription revenue rose by 8.1%, more than twice the growth rate achieved in 2022. Revenue from ad-supported audio services grew at a faster rate last year, up 12.4% to £71.5 million, despite only contributing a fraction of the revenue. Digital download revenue dropped for a tenth consecutive year to £26.0 million, although its 5.8% annual fall was notably much gentler than the previous year when the market declined by 17.3%.
Flowers by Miley Cyrus was the most-streamed track of 2023 with 198.1 million audio and video streams in the UK, followed by Sprinter by Dave& Central Cee (160.6 million streams) and Escapism by Raye ft 070 Shake (142.0 million streams).
Vinyl revenue last year was almost a dozen times greater than a decade ago
The £141.6 million of revenue generated by vinyl in 2023 was nearly 12 times the amount the format brought in back in 2013 when it contributed just over £12 million to the market. Brand new releases were the main driving force last year behind the 18.6% rise in vinyl revenue with seven of 2023’s ten biggest sellers having been released in the calendar year, including 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift, Hackney Diamonds byThe Rolling Stones and Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey.
CD revenues on the rise again, as the format is embraced by younger fans
Although vinyl is once again established as the biggest physical format in terms of income, CD revenue has now increased annually in two of the last three years, including in 2023 when it was up 5.4% to £97.2 million. Alongside a revival in cassette sales, the rising demand for vinyl and CD releases has been boosted by annual events such as Record Store Day and National Album Day, in addition to new generations of music fans embracing these beloved formats.
Annual public performance revenue surpasses £150 million for first time
Public performance income, which is generated by the broadcast and public performance of recorded music, increased by 7.3% year-on-year, with £154.5 million collected on behalf of record labels in 2023. Income from synchronisation or ‘sync’, when music is used in visual media such as film, TV, games and advertising, was £39.5 million last year, a drop of 7.6% on the year before.
Source
BPI
