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 a mere 3.2% in 2008 despite early projections that the drop could have been in double figures.
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.
Overall in 2008, a total of 133.6 million albums were sold compared to 121.5 million a decade earlier. It is in the singles market where digital is really making itself felt, so much so that total single sales grew last year by 33% to 115 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 10% of global sales in 2008
The UK has the highest per capita consumption of CDs in the world (2.2 per head of the population)
Four of the biggest selling albums in the world in 2008 were by UK artists, including the top seller (Coldplay’s Viva La Vida)
2008 was a strong year for domestic talent – UK artists accounted for 49.1% of album sales here in the UK
Rock was the dominant genre in 2008’s albums market, accounting for over a third of sales. Pop accounted for a quarter of the market, with R&B responsible for one in 10 albums sold
The price of albums continues to fall: from 2000 to 2008 the average cost of an album dropped by 27%