UK Archives

UK consumers bought over £1 Bn discs in 2021

02/03/2022

UK consumers bought over £1 Bn discs in 2021 featuring music and video and games according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). These figures are from their recently published ERA Yearbook 2022 and defied expectations amid the streaming revolution. Sales of physical formats amounted to £1.05 Bn, down 18.5% on 2020, to comprise just 11% of the overall entertainment market, but in unit terms that still represented more than 50m discs sold. Some segments bucked […]

BBC Sounds app gets upgrades

02/03/2022

BBC Sounds app gets upgrades including the ability to control their play queue and integration into the Sonos app. Listeners with iOS devices will now be able to add, sort and delete items in their play queue. How to control your play queue in BBC Sounds To access the queue, when listening to any podcast, radio show or music mix on Sounds, listeners can tap on the button in the bottom right of the screen. […]

SOURCE: RAJAR - Share of digital listening hours (Q4 2021)

Listening to radio on smart speakers increases in UK

10/02/2022

Listening to radio on smart speakers increases in UK according to the latest figures release by RAJAR, the UK’s official body for measuring radio audiences. 51% of speaker users listened to radio weekly in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to 48% in Q3 2021. Listeners who said they used smart speakers everyday rose from 20 to 21% in the same time period. Key UK radio listening statistics 40 million adults aged 15+ are now […]

UK competition watchdog launches music streaming study

27/01/2022

UK competition watchdog launches music streaming study with submissions invited by the 17th February 2022. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will ask whether the music streaming market is working well for music lovers. While focussing on potential harm to consumers, the CMA will also assess whether any lack of competition between music companies could affect the musicians, singers and songwriters whose interests are intertwined with those of music lovers. If the CMA finds problems, […]

5 David Bowie albums remixed in 360 Reality Audio

13/01/2022

5 David Bowie albums remixed in 360 Reality Audio for Bowie 75 – an extended celebration of David Bowie’s 75th birthday on 8th January 2022. The content is the latest David Bowie music to be mixed in 360 Reality Audio, following Space Oddity, which is currently available on 360 Reality Audio supported streaming platforms. Longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti crafted 360 Reality Audio mixes of Heathen, Reality, A Reality Tour (Live), The Next Day, and ★ (pronounced “Blackstar”). The albums will be available for streaming in 360 Reality Audio beginning 21st […]

UK music copyright infringement sees slight decline in 2021

11/01/2022

UK music copyright infringement sees a slight decline in 2021 despite a small increase across all content categories according to the Online Copyright Infringement Tracker Survey (11th Wave) conducted by the UK Government’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The report is based on a survey of 5000 nationally representative individuals aged 12+ and 50 in-depth interviews of 16+ adults conducted between 21/03/21 and 24/04/21. This was a time when the UK was in lockdown and consumption […]

Entertainment sales in UK grew for 9th successive year

06/01/2022

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 […]