Entertainment sales in UK grew for 9th successive year in 2021 according to preliminary figures released by the ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association). The UK music, video and games markets generated an all-time-record sales total of £9,716 million and could break the £10 Bn sales barrier this year with revenues up nearly a quarter since 2019, the last pre-pandemic year.
Contrary to fears that 2020’s lockdown boom in streaming was a one-off, digital streams and sales continued to grow through 2021 with music revenues up another 8.7% and video up 13.3%. Only games faltered with sales down 3.3%, but that was still nearly 14% more than in 2019, the last full year before COVID-19 struck.
How the UK’s Entertainment Sector powered through the pandemic
| Consumer spend
£ millions |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | % change 2021 versus 2020 | % change 2021 versus 2019 | |
| Music | Physical | £318.1 | £271.6 | £291.5 | 7.3 | -8.4 |
| Downloads | £89.7 | £72.2 | £55.0 | -23.8 | -38.7 | |
| Streaming | £1,045.8 | £1,199.8 | £1,330.7 | 10.9 | 27.2 | |
| Total Music | £1,453.7 | £1,543.6 | £1,677.3 | 8.7 | 15.4 | |
| Video | Physical Retail | £477.2 | £355.7 | £236.2 | -33.6 | -50.5 |
| Physical Rental | £23.4 | £16.2 | £12.1 | -25.3 | -48.3 | |
| Digital | £2,110.0 | £2,939.8 | £3,504.0 | 19.2 | 66.1 | |
| Total Video | £2,610.6 | £3,311.7 | £3,752.3 | 13.3 | 43.7 | |
| Games | Physical | £602.5 | £645.7 | £511.5 | -20.8 | -15.1 |
| Digital | £3,162.1 | £3,789.3 | £3,775.0 | -0.4 | 19.4 | |
| Total Games | £3,764.6 | £4,434.9 | £4,286.5 | -3.3 | 13.9 | |
| Total Entertainment | Physical | £1,421.2 | £1,289.2 | £1,051.3 | -18.5 | -26.0 |
| Digital (inc streaming) | £6,407.6 | £8,001.0 | £8,664.8 | 8.3 | 35.2 | |
| Total Entertainment | £7,828.9 | £9,290.2 | £9,716.1 | 4.6 | 24.1 |
SOURCE: ERA, compiled from actual sales data where available and industry-standard estimates where not.
Nearly 90 pence in every pound spent on music, video and games is now online. Total digital revenues grew by 8.3% in 2021 to £8.66bn, more than the entire entertainment market was worth just two years ago. Overall physical revenues declined 18.5% in 2021, but there was one notable exception: physical revenues in music grew by 7.3%, their first growth since 2001, driven by the continuing boom in sales of vinyl, up 23.2% to £135.6m.
Music
Music’s growth was once again driven by subscription streaming services from the likes of Spotify, Amazon, Apple and YouTube Music which reached £1,331m in 2021 more than the entire value of UK recorded music sales as recently as 2018.
With around 70 pence in the pound paid by streaming services to the music industry, this means the services delivered around £900m to record companies and music publishers.
Subscription streaming grew in value by 10.9% in 2021, but the comeback story of the decade continued with vinyl growing more than twice as fast – up 23.2% – to reach £135.6m.
Music benefited from arguably the strongest release schedule of ERA’s three sectors in 2021, with new release albums from Adele, Ed Sheeran and ABBA. Notably Sheeran and Abba both had two albums in the year-end Top 20 as did Fleetwood Mac, as the combination of vinyl and streaming levelled the playing field for classic repertoire.
In the track market, seven titles generated the equivalent of more than one million sales, led by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Bad Habits’ at 1.72m.
| Consumer spend
£ millions |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2021 versus 2020 (% growth) | 2021 versus 2019 (% growth) |
| Subscription Streaming | £1,045.8 | £1,199.8 | £1,330.7 | 10.9 | 27.2 |
| CD Albums | £217.0 | £156.2 | £150.1 | -3.9 | -30.8 |
| Vinyl Albums | £97.1 | £110.1 | £135.6 | 23.2 | 39.6 |
| Album downloads | £53.2 | £43.5 | £33.4 | -23.2 | -37.3 |
| Track downloads | £36.5 | £28.7 | £21.6 | -24.6 | -40.7 |
| Physical Singles | £2.9 | £3.5 | £3.8 | 8.3 | 31.6 |
| Other Physical Albums | £1.1 | £1.9 | £2.0 | 9.6 | 78.8 |
| Total | £1,453.7 | £1,543.6 | £1,677.3 | 8.7 | 15.4 |
SOURCE: Physical and digital sales – The Official Charts Company; Subscription streaming – ERA/BPI estimates.
ERA have also released detailed figures for the Video and Games sectors and these can be found here.
