Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to This Is Music 2023, published by UK Music on 7 November 2023, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on the music sector of the decline in the physical music market in 2022 cited in that report.

The way people consume music has changed significantly over the past decade, and the industry’s continued success has come from embracing technology. As referenced in UK Music’s This is Music report 2023, there has been a ‘shift to streaming’ from physical sales.

Whilst the BPI have reported that Vinyl LP purchases grew for a 15th consecutive year in 2022, This is Music reports that the physical market declined by 10.5% in 2022. However, streaming revenues grew across all fronts. Subscription revenues for premium services grew by 4.8% in 2022, ad-supported services grew by 22.3%, and video streaming such as YouTube and TikTok grew by 11.2% in 2022.

The headline figures from the UK Music report outline that in 2022, UK music exports generated £4 billion; the music industry’s contribution to the UK economy was £6.7 billion (GVA); and total UK music industry employment was 210,000. Across all key commercial assets (musical composition, recorded music, live performance and brand image) revenues continued to grow in 2022.

The UK is the second biggest exporter of music globally and the Government is supporting the industry to retain this position in the international market by trebling the funding for the Music Exports Growth Scheme to £3.2m over the next two years.