Despite the negative impact of file-sharing and commercial piracy, the UK has managed to weather the sales storms 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. Even with the global recession factored in, album sales dropped only 3.5% in 2009 thanks to continued investment in domestic talent and the continuing good value they offer, with average prices dropping again (the cost of a CD fell below £8 for the first time in 2009).
Downloading continues to grow, with over 16 million albums bought digitally in 2009. this was an increase of 56% and they now make up 12.5% of album sales overall.
Overall in 2009, a total of 128.9 million albums were sold compared to 121.5 million a decade earlier, although sales are down from the high water mark of 2004. It is in the singles market where digital is really making itself felt, so much so that total single sales grew last year by 32.7% to 152.7 million (across all formats).
Useful facts:
The UK is the second largest (behind the USA) source of repertoire in the world
The UK is the world’s third-largest music market, accounting for 9.2% of global sales in 2009
The biggest selling album in the world in 2009 was by a UK artist - Susan Boyle.
This is the third year in a row that the biggest selling artist album globally has come from a UK act, following Coldplay and Amy Winehouse
2009 was another strong year for domestic talent – UK artists accounted for 48.8% of album sales here in the UK
Rock was the biggest genre in 2009’s albums market, but Pop closed the gap to just two percentage points (29% of sales compared to Rock's 31%)