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UK streamed 3.7 billion songs in 2012
Quote:
Digital music services - such as Spotify, Deezer and We7 - delivered a record total of "at least" 3.7 billion audio streams in 2012, but the overall entertainment market continued to struggle.
The 3.7bn streaming figure, up 40% on the previous year, is equivalent to the total number of singles sold in the UK over the past 60 years, according to the Official Charts Company.
The retail market for music downloads increased by 7.7% last year, but there was also growth in other digital areas. Video games sales on digital were up 15.1%, and digital video increased by 20.3%, the ERA Yearbook has revealed.
"Digital retailers and service providers are leading a revolution in the entertainment business," said ERA director general Kim Bayley.
"Building on the success of download stores, streaming services are changing the music landscape. Just a couple of months ago the Official Charts Company was celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Official Singles Chart and calculated that 3.7bn was the number of singles sold in the UK since 1952.
"Now we discover that is also the number of music streams served in the UK by ERA members during 2012. That is extraordinary."
The ERA Yearbook, using data supplied by the Official Charts Company, GfK Chart-track and IHS Screen Digest, revealed that the video games business joined music in becoming a majority online market in 2012, with more than half of sales coming from internet retail. Only video remained a majority bricks-and-mortar store business in 2012, although that is expected to change with the recent fall of HMV and Blockbuster into administration.
In January, the ERA revealed that combined digital sales of music, video games and video exceeded £1bn for the first time in 2012.
But this growth could not offset an overall market decline, as combined sales (digital and physical) of music, video and games fell 12% in 2012 to £4.2bn.
Video games sales were down by £336 million on 2011 figures, video sales fell by £178m, and music by £59m. In total, the UK population spent on average £9.06 each less on entertainment than in the previous year.
Sales of music, video and games at bricks-and-mortar stores fell in value by £516.7m in 2012 compared with 2011, and entertainment sales by internet retailers slumped by £161m.
Bayley said that the 2012 decline could be "blamed on the broader economy" and a weak schedule of major entertainment releases.
"Entertainment's problems in 2012 were a combination of structural change and one of the weakest release schedules on record," said Bayley.
Many entertainment brands avoided releasing big titles last summer to avoid a clash with the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. This created a very packed pre-Christmas period and an unbalanced release schedule in general. Nearly half of games sales (47.4%) took place in the final 13 weeks of 2012, and the biggest video title of the year, The Dark Knight Rises, was released in December.
Across the entire entertainment market as a whole, the Top 40 biggest-selling music, video and games titles sold a total of 36.9m units in 2012, down 25% on 2011's equivalent Top 40.
"2012 suffered from a weak schedule across all entertainment formats," said Bayley. "It was a particular blow to specialist entertainment retailers who are reliant on the quality of the product they are delivered."
But the ERA is seeing positive signs for 2013, as the release on video of the latest James Bond film Skyfall has already seen the 2m units barrier broken, with the title outselling The Dark Knight Rises, 2012's biggest seller with 1.7m units.
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