Music sales hit highest level since 2006 but CDs plummet
Music sales hit their highest level since 2006 in the UK last year, despite sales of physical CDs continuing to plummet.
Data from the music industry body the BPI revealed that the equivalent of 154m albums were purchased or streamed in 2019 – the highest level since the 161.4m albums registered in 2016.
The figure covers purchases made across all formats, including digital downloads, streams from subscription services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Prime, as well as physical sales of CDs, vinyl and cassettes.
But the figures were dominated by digital, with the equivalent of 114m albums streamed in 2019 – an increase of more than a quarter on the previous year.
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