BPI 2011 stats: Market down, album sales fall 5.6% – but digital up 26.6%
2011 was a record year for singles and digital album sales – but neither could hide yet another annual decline in the overall UK recorded music market.
New Official Charts Company figures released by the BPI confirm that combined sales of digital and physical albums fell overall by 5.6% to 113.2m in 2011.
Digital album sales rose 26.6% to 26.6m, while sales of albums on CD declined 12.6% year-on-year to 86.2m in total.
The CD remains the favoured format for UK album buyers in 2011, accounting for 76.1% of total sales compared to a 23.5% market share for digital and 0.3% for vinyl.
Digital album downloads continued to grow, with 15 albums selling more than 100,000 digital copies in the year.
Sales of vinyl LPs rose by well over a third (43.7%) during 2011 to 337,000, their highest tally since 2005.
The UK singles market smashed all-time records for the fourth straight year in succession. Total singles sales increased 10.0% overall to 177.9m in 2011, 99.3% of which were sold as digital tracks and bundles.
1.1m CD singles were sold in 2011, representing just 0.6% of the total. All of the top 20 best-selling singles of 2011 sold more than 500,000 copies each.
As Music Week revealed last night, 1.0m albums and 5.7m singles were downloaded in the last week of 2011 alone – the biggest week ever for digital sales of both formats.
Discussing the numbers, Geoff Taylor, BPI Chief Executive, criticised the UK government’s lack of action on piracy.
“British artists continue to produce incredible music that resonates at home and around the world,” he said.
“But while other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our Government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of US tech giants. The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again – a creative crunch that will destroy jobs and mean the next Adele may not get her chance to shine on the world stage.”
2011 in numbers (Official Charts Company data)
ALBUMS
Total albums
2010 – 119.9m
2011 – 113.2m (-5.6%)
CD Albums
2010 – 98.5m
2011 – 86.2m (-12.6%)
Digital Albums
2010 – 21m
2011 – 26.6m (+23.5%)
SINGLES
Total Singles
2010 – 161.8m
2011 – 177.9m (+10%
)
Digital
2010 – 158.6m
2011 – 175.1m (+10.4%)
CD
2010 – 1.9mm
2011 – 1.1m (-40.5%)
Source: Music Week
