​Digital streaming makes up over 85% of music consumption in the UK

Digital streaming now accounts for 87.7% of music consumption in the UK, according to a new report from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

The end-of-year report showed that more than four-fifths of all music consumption is now made up of streaming through platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and TIDAL.

In 2023, BPI reported 179.6 billion streams in the UK alone, double that of 2018’s report. Listening habits are said to have changed dramatically in the last decade, with streaming hitting an all-time high in 2023.

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The statistics are also up 12.8% from the year prior, confirming that there were 159.3 billion audio streams in the UK in 2022. In the same report, BPI found that vinyl sales rose for the 16th consecutive year in 2023.

UK vinyl sales skyrocketed last year, reaching their highest level since 1990 - 5.9 million vinyl records were sold marking an 11.7% increase year-on-year, making it the fastest growth this decade.

“Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming consumption continues to hit record levels,” said Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive.

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“Whilst LP sales have now been on an upward path for the past 16 years, it is encouraging to see a stabilisation in demand for CD, as well as new generations of music fans falling in love with the cassette.”

In May last year, a new report made by data and insights company Luminate revealed that 120,000 new tracks are released every day on music streaming platforms.

In the first quarter of 2023, 10.8 million songs were uploaded — which is over half the amount released in total in 2018 (16.4 million tracks).

Read the full report from the British Phonographic Industry here.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter