· Average price of a CD dips below £8 for the first time.
· 43.1% of the UK population aged 12+ bought music in 2009 – same as 2008.
· The number of people active in the digital music market grew by 41.3%.
May 11, 2010 - The average retail price of a CD album has dipped below £8 for the first time in 2009, figures published today in the BPI Statistical Handbook 2010 reveal.
This average price follows a decade of intense competition that has seen CD albums – whether single or double - drop by more than £3 to £7.99 on average, a decrease of 28%. In the same period the RPI (Retail Prices Index) rose by over 26%.
Half of all CD albums purchased in 2009 cost under £8. 79.1% are now purchased for £9.99 or less, compared to only 40.2% at the start of the decade.
Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, said: "With the average price of an album now below £8, CD’s represent fantastic value for money for music fans. In real terms, the cost of buying a CD has fallen by well over 40% during the last ten years, while the price of most other consumer goods has risen substantially.
“2009 was also notable for the ascendance of online retailers, whether selling physical product via mail order, or as digital downloads. The internet now accounts for a third of all music sales revenues."
Sales of vinyl LPs rose for a second successive year - an increase of 5.2% with 219,000 sold, compared with 209,000 in 2008 - but vinyl’s share of the market remained at only 0.2% of total sales. Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ was, as in 2008, the biggest seller on the format, with the 2009 releases by Arctic Monkeys and U2 rounding out the top three.
The Statistics Handbook 2010 contains extensive data from Kantar Worldpanel which collects a wide range of consumer data on entertainment spending.
It found that 43.1% of the population aged over 12 made at least one music purchase in 2009, roughly the same as 2008. Women in their thirties are the most active consumers of music, with 57.5% having made some kind of purchase in 2009.
Men, however, are still the biggest overall spenders on music, accounting for 60.2% of all music spend in the UK in 2009 and also taking the greatest share at internet retailers – 67.4%. 30 to 39 year olds remain the biggest spenders on music overall but the 20 to 29 age group buy most music digitally, accounting for more than a third (33.9%) of spend.
41.3% more people were active in the digital music market in 2009, with over 13% of the population making a digital purchase compared with 9.2% in 2008. The 20 to 29 year olds were most active, with more than a quarter (27.2%) legally purchasing music in this way.
Singles and albums downloaded from iTunes accounted for 10.6% of online retail expenditure. Amazon – who now provide both digital download and home delivery services – also fared well, taking the single largest share within the category with 13.4% of all music spend. Play.com achieved a 4.4% share of expenditure.
HMV is still, by some distance, the biggest retailer in terms of expenditure, with the chain accounting for well over a quarter (28%) of all money spent on music in 2009. Of the supermarkets, Tesco again attracted the greatest amount of music custom with 10.2% of expenditure, just ahead of Asda (8.4%). Together with Sainsbury’s (2.9%) and Morrisons (2.0%), these retailers accounted for 23.6% of all music expenditure.
ENDS
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Sources
Number of new releases – Millward Brown / Official Charts Company.
Retail prices / retailer shares / retailer customer profile / penetration and average spend – Kantar Worldpanel.
For further information on BPI, please contact
Adam Liversage on 020 7803 1326 / 0780 1179032 or email adam.liversage@bpi.co.uk.
Lynne McDowell on 020 7803 1395 / 0776 3619709 or email lynne.mcdowell@bpi.co.uk.
About the Statistical Handbook
Published each year and free to BPI members, the BPI Statistical Handbook 2010 retails at £70 and is available to order online from the BPI’s own webstore at http://bpi.co.uk/shop or by calling the BPI direct on 020 7803 1395. Past editions of the Handbook are also available.
About BPI
The BPI is the representative voice of the UK recorded music business. We are a trade organisation funded by our members - which include hundreds of independent music companies and the UK’s four major record labels. BPI members account for approximately 90% of all recorded music sold in the UK, and globally the UK's recorded music market is the third biggest.
The BPI also organises the annual BRIT Awards show as well as the Classical BRIT Awards show. The organising company BRIT Awards Limited, is a fully owned subsidiary of the BPI. Substantial proceeds from both shows go to the BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the BPI that has donated almost £15m to charitable causes nationwide, since its foundation in 1989.