Music streaming up 80% in the UK

Music streaming is booming, at least in the UK. According to new data from the Official Charts Company, music streams are up 80% year on year through services such as Spotify, Deezer and Google Play. This added up to a grand total of 11.5bn streams listened to by Brits in the last six months, compared to 14.8bn for the whole of 2014. Using the Album Equivalent Sales measure, which aims to bring streaming figures in line with traditional music industry sales measurements, these figures show an overall 4% lift in music consumption.

The news comes after a seismic few months for the streaming industry, with the launch of Tidal and Apple Music both threatening the dominance of Spotify. In the past few months a series of high profile musicians – from AC/DC to Taylor Swift – have been vocal about the new medium, with Swift helping to pressure Apple into paying artists royalties during the service’s free trial period.

However, while streaming figures have shot up, it’s unclear whether this equates to an increase in revenue for artists. The BPI, who released the figures, did not break down the difference between paid subscribers and those using streaming services for free. Music streams on YouTube videos, which pays a comparatively low royalty rate, have also increased by 98% year on year, which may give some in the industry cause for concern.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, remained buoyant however. He said: “The launch of Apple Music will give further impetus to the revolution of music streaming. Millions of households are experiencing the joy of instantly playing any song they want, all around their house and on any device, and exploring a universe of new music and classic albums.”

Elsewhere, the figures continued to show the decline of the CD, although the speed of decline was slowing, with a 4.4% drop for physical formats compared to last year’s 10.4% drop. Vinyl sales reached a 20-year high with the format on course to shift 2m units by the end of the year.

The most-streamed track of the year to date was Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk, which has been played 45 million times on streaming services so far this year.