British Music Industry

Good news for the British music industry!, new statistics compiled by the British Phonographic Industry have suggested that the British music industry is growing thanks to legal downloads.
The figures revealed a 1.4% annual increase in overall income in 2009.
A huge rise in online streaming and legal music downloads has led to total revenue for digital services increasing from £127.8m in 2008 to £188.9m last year - a 47.8% rise in profit for digital income.
Digital revenue now accounts for 20.3 percent of the industry's total annual income. Meanwhile, physical music format sales continued their year-on-year decline by 6.1%
BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor said “It's encouraging to see industry revenues stabilize and even show modest growth in 2009,”... “This is testament to continuing investment by UK labels in talented artists despite challenging economic conditions, and the innovation labels have shown in licensing new digital services.”
However, Taylor conceded that there is still some way to go before the music industry returns to the level of prosperity enjoyed prior to the boom of illegal downloading around the turn of the century.
"Let’s put it in broader perspective," he added. “2009's modest result follows a five-year drop in annual income, and total industry income has not exceeded £1bn since 2006.”