The U.K. music retail market rose 9.9% in H1 2019 to £672.7m ($854.3m) thanks to growth in streaming, which is up 25.8% year-on-year according to stats from the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA). Best-sellers included The Greatest Showman ST and Lewis Capaldi’s debut.
Subscription streaming generated £485.9m ($617m) from January to the end of June, which is a massive 72.2% of the value of the entire market. Still, the rate of growth is down from the 37.7% rise streaming recorded across the whole of 2018.
Physical generated £138.8m ($176.3m) in sales in H1 2019, down 13.8% on H1 2018 — a slightly improved rate of decline on 2018’s year-end 16.6%. Downloads dropped 26.1% over the same six-month period to £48.1m ($81.1m), which is generally on par with the rate of decline the format has recorded in Blighty over the last three years.
