UK music consumption increases for 8th year running up by 4.3% in 2022 according to figures released by the BPI. The figures based on Official Charts Company data showed that 166.1 million albums or their equivalent were either streamed or purchased in 2022. The UK consumption total was made up primarily of streams, comprising 159.3 Bn streams, up 8.2% on 2021 and more than double the volume achieved in 2017, when the market had 68.1 Bn audio streams.
More than 3 Bn audio streams were generated on average every week in 2022, compared to around 1.3 Bn each week five years earlier. Over this time, the UK’s audio streaming market has more than doubled in size from 68.1 billion to 159.3 billion audio streams and was last year over 40 times bigger than in 2012 (3.7bn audio streams). It now takes, on average, 1.3 million audio streams to break into the Official Charts Top 40 Singles and a combined 7 million audio and video streams to land a UK Number 1 single.
British artists accounted for all the Top 10 of the end-of-year Official Singles Chart of 2022 – the first such clean sweep since such charts were published over 50 years ago – led by Harry Styles and incl. Cat Burns, Ed Sheeran, Glass Animals, LF System, Sam Fender, and Kate Bush among others.
UK Official Singles Chart 2022
Pos/Artist/Title
- Harry Styles – As It Was
- Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits
- Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran – Peru
- Cat Burns – Go
- Ed Sheeran – Shivers
- Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill
- Glass Animals – Heat Waves
- Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott – Where Are You Now
- LF System – Afraid To Feel
- Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under
© Official Charts Company
Independent labels grew their share of the market for a fifth year in a row, with nine indie titles topping the weekly Official Albums Chart, including releases by The 1975, Central Cee & Wet Leg. Their share increased for a fifth consecutive year in 2022 to 28.6%. This was up from 26.9% in 2021, while the independent share has grown by nearly a third since 2017 when it stood at 22.1%.
Physical formats remain a ‘kingmaker’ for chart success
Physical formats again dominated the top of the Official Albums Chart, accounting for a majority of chart-eligible sales of the No.1 title in most weeks (38) in 2022, while in 33 weeks physical comprised more than 70% of chart-eligible sales of the week’s top album.
More than 11 million Compact Discs were sold in the calendar year. Although this was a drop of 19.3% on the previous year, a number of albums sold in significant quantities on the format, led by Midnights by Taylor Swift, Gold Rush Kid by George Ezra and Arctic Monkeys’ The Car.
Vinyl purchases registered an increase for the 15th year in a row as LP sales of 5.5 million units reached their highest level in over 30 years.
Sales of cassettes, whilst still a very small part of the market overall, continued to grow in 2022, up 5.2% year-on-year to 195,000 units. The year’s top sellers included Dance Fever by Florence + The Machine, Muse’s Will Of The People and 23 by Central Cee.
The UK Official Singles Chart 2022, UK Official Vinyl Artist Albums Chart 2022, UK Official Cassette Artist Albums Chart 2022 and the UK Official Charts Most Streamed Audio Tracks 2022 can be found on the Official Charts Company website here.
