YouTube will begin having an impact on the UK charts this summer. The Official Charts Company will add video counts to its weekly singles chart starting July 6. The release from the OCC did not share what the equivalency calculations would be for videos. Continue Reading
James Purnell, the BBC’s director of education and radio, spoke at the European Broadcasting Union about the organization’s strategy for reaching a young audience that has increasingly favored digital over analog media. His proposed approach is to meet those potential listeners where they are rather than trying to convert them into terrestrial radio fans. Continue Reading
The spring 2018 results are out from the MIDAS survey from RAJAR, providing a snapshot of how the UK population is consuming audio. Live radio has the largest share for each age group, though young people listen less. Podcast is consumed by 11% of the population. Much more. Continue Reading
PRS for Music, a UK collection agency, announced that it paid out record royalties to its members last year. The group’s 2017 payouts totaled £605.1 million, up 14.7% from the 2016 amounts. PRS said that 6.6 trillion performances were reported last year, a 53% on-year increase that led to a record-high collection total of £717 million. Continue Reading
BPI released its 2018 yearbook, with data and statistics about the previous year’s performance for the UK music industry. Total revenue across all music sources grew 10.6% to £839 million. This year marked the first time the streaming revenue in the UK has exceeded physical format revenue. Continue Reading
Songwriters and composers in the UK are making a push for music publishers to include them in their recent licensing negotiations. Ahead of Spotify’s direct listening date, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors is calling on publishers to commit to sharing proceeds from their sales of stock in the streaming music company. Continue Reading
The British Phonographic Industry reported big numbers in music consumption for 2017, particularly in streaming. Total consumption for the year increased 9.5% to a total of 135.1 million albums and album-equivalents. The year saw 68.1 billion audio streams served, reaching more than half of the UK’s music consumption. Continue Reading
The Q4 RAJAR results round out a year of strong digital radio performance in the UK. The quarterly data showed that 48.9 million adults, or 90% of the adult population listens to their station of choice each week. That figure has hovered around 90% since 2011. Listeners consume an average 21.3 hours of live radio each week. Continue Reading
RAJAR has shared the results from its MIDAS Survey for winter 2017. Live radio has a 90% reach. Live radio also has the largest share of listening hours for each age bracket. The survey also offers data on on-demand listening and podcasts. Another interesting data set is the device share, which breaks down types of listening by platform. Continue Reading
The UK saw its total music sales increase 9.6% between 2016 and 2017, reaching a total of £1.2 billion, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association. Streaming was a key factor in the positive performance thanks to 41.9% growth in sales. Continue Reading
We learned from James Cridland’s podnews that UK publication LBC is getting on the bandwagon of daily news podcasts. The Daily Debrief will release new episodes in the afternoon, reaching commuters on their way home from work. Continue Reading
Spotify’s UK operations collected revenue of £237 million in 2016, up 27% from the previous year. Subscription revenue was the main driver of the year’s growth with a 26% increase. Continue Reading