Break Into Music

UK music industry

The UK music industry is one of the most respected in the world.

The UK music industry is one of the most creative and buoyant in the world. From the days of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the 60's, right up to today's artists like Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Cheryl Cole and even Susan Boyle.

Business is "booming" as talented new artists are breaking through and the public are lapping them up at record-breaking rates.

Despite the negative impact of illegal downloads, the UK has managed to respond better than many other markets. This is partly down to the fact that UK consumers buy more music per capita than almost anywhere else in the world.

Despite the global recession, downloading continues to power ahead to the point where 10 million albums were bought digitally in 2008 (up 65% from 2007) and they now make up 7.7% of album sales overall*.

The UK is the world's third-largest music market, accounting for 10% of global sales in 2008, and has the highest per capita consumption of CDs in the world (2.2 per head of the population)**.

Not only that, four of the biggest selling albums in the world in 2008 were by UK artists; including the top seller (Coldplay’s Viva La Vida).

Thanks to online streaming and legal music downloads, the revenue for digital services increased from £127.8 million in 2008 to £188.9 million last year - marking a 47.8 per cent increase in profit for digital income.

Money made digitally and online now makes up 20.3 per cent of the industry's annual income. Physical music format sales have declined by 6.1 per cent, continuing a downward trend in sales which has lasted for six years.

In short, it's an exciting time to be involved with music, at every level - and there's no industry in the world more famous than the British music industry.

*Source: NME Music News
**Source: BPI

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