ENTERTAINMENT FANS SPEND MORE THAN £100m A WEEK ON DIGITAL SERVICES

Streaming helps music grow revenues 9.9% in first half of 2019

8 August 2019 - UK consumers spent more than £100m a week on digital music, video and games in the first half of 2019, according to latest data from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), a total of more than £2.7bn on streaming services, downloads and gaming credits.

 

Add in expenditure on physical formats such as CD and DVD and retail revenues of the combined music, video and games sectors grew by a solid 4.5% to £3.3bn in the first six months of 2019 compared with the same period last year.

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “With January-June historically the quietest half of the year, this is another great result for entertainment. Digital services and physical retailers alike continue to innovate to expand the market for music, video and games.”

 

Recorded music was the fastest growing sector with growth of 9.9% compared with the same period of 2018.

 

Music’s growth was driven by continuing strong adoption of subscription streaming services from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Deezer and YouTube Music. Consumers spent £485.9m on subscription streaming in the first half of 2019, 25.8% more than in the same period last year.

 

The best-selling album was the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman which generated sales of 380,000 units to add to the 1.62m which made it the biggest seller of 2018.

 

The best-selling track was Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ which generated sales of 1.34m units.

 

Music provided a theme to the video market’s success with the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody the biggest seller of the first six months of 2019 with sales of 1.45m.

 

Expenditure on video grew by 6.4% in the first half of 2019 to £1.07bn with the continuing decline in DVD and Blu-ray sales easily outweighed by the 18% (£130m) increase in digital revenues.

 

Revenues in videogames increased 1% over the period to £1.56bn, although games remains by far the biggest sector accounting for nearly half of the combined music, video and games markets. Most successful game of the period was Grand Theft Auto V (361,312 units sold), narrowly ahead of FIFA 19 (360,588).

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT RETAIL CONSUMER SPEND H1 2019

CONSUMER SPEND £ (m)

 

H1 2018

H1 2019

% change

Music

Physical

£160.9

£138.8

-13.8%

 

Downloads

£65.0

£48.1

-26.1%

 

Streaming

£386.1

£485.9

25.8%

 

Total Music

£612.1

£672.7

9.9%

 

 

 

 

 

Video

Physical

£281.3

£215.8

-23.3%

 

Digital

£724.4

£854.5

18.0%

 

Total Video

£1,005.7

£1,070.3

6.4%

 

 

 

 

 

Games

Physical

£202.2

£184.9

-8.5%

 

Digital

£1,343.4

£1,376.3

2.4%

 

Total Games

£1,545.6

£1,561.2

1.0%

 

 

 

 

 

Total Entertainment

Physical

£644.4

£539.5

-16.3%

 

Digital (inc streaming)

£2,519.0

£2,764.7

9.8%

 

Total Entertainment

£3,163.4

£3,304.2

4.5%

 

Sources: Music: Physical / Digital - The Official Charts Company. Streaming (subscription only) - ERA Estimates. Video: Physical - The Official Charts Company / BASE Digital - Futuresouce Consulting estimates (including EST, Pay TV-VoD, iVoD and sVoD services). Games: Physical - ISFE / B2Boost. Digital - IHS Markit estimates (including digital online, mobile and tablet gaming)

 

TOP 10 ALBUMS H1 2019

 

Title

Artist

Total Units

1

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

MOTION PICTURE CAST RECORDING

380,929

2

DIVINELY UNINSPIRED TO A HELLISH EXTENT

LEWIS CAPALDI

229,340

3

STAYING AT TAMARA'S

GEORGE EZRA

226,505

4

THANK U NEXT

ARIANA GRANDE

225,664

5

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY - OST

QUEEN

221,344

6

NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 102

VARIOUS ARTISTS

216,355

7

WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO

BILLIE EILISH

200,230

8

A STAR IS BORN

MOTION PICTURE CAST RECORDING

174,502

9

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

TOM WALKER

167,718

10

ALWAYS IN BETWEEN

JESS GLYNNE

131,527

       
       

TOP 10 TRACKS H1 2019

 

Title

Artist

Total Units

1

SOMEONE YOU LOVED

LEWIS CAPALDI

1,342,103

2

GIANT

CALVIN HARRIS & RAG'N'BONE MAN

969,600

3

SWEET BUT PSYCHO

AVA MAX

963,865

4

OLD TOWN ROAD

LIL NAS X

930,137

5

7 RINGS

ARIANA GRANDE

816,947

6

DON'T CALL ME UP

MABEL

766,372

7

WOW.

POST MALONE

759,394

8

DANCING WITH A STRANGER

SAM SMITH & NORMANI

698,394

9

BAD GUY

BILLIE EILISH

667,804

10

SHOTGUN

GEORGE EZRA

641,247

       

 

       

TOP 10 VIDEOS H1 2019

 

 

Title

Total Video Units Sold

 

1

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

1,454,671

 

2

VENOM

559,381

 

3

A STAR IS BORN

557,914

 

4

MARY POPPINS RETURNS

514,687

 

5

FANTASTIC BEASTS - CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD

490,612

 

6

AQUAMAN

370,913

 

7

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

337,132

 

8

BUMBLEBEE

280,312

 

9

SPIDER-MAN - INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

266,987

 

10

AVENGERS - INFINITY WAR

262,221

 
       
       

TOP 10 VIDEOGAMES H1 2019

 

 

Title

Total Units

 

1

GRAND THEFT AUTO V

361,312

 

2

FIFA 19

360,588

 

3

TOM CLANCY'S THE DIVISION 2

263,520

 

4

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2

259,931

 

5

RESIDENT EVIL 2

239,495

 

6

DAYS GONE

229,182

 

7

TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE

175,451

 

8

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4

172,065

 

9

ANTHEM

165,746

 

10

FORZA HORIZON 4

144,790

 
       
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