UK cassette sales doubled in 2020, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
2020 was a great year for UK music consumption all across the board. For starters, music-streaming hit an all-time high among streaming platforms, in part due to the national lockdowns. Bringing the total number of streams up from previous years by 25.1 billion across the UK. Geoff Taylor, the Chief Executive of BPI stated “the performance of recorded music in 2020 was remarkable, and reminds us how important music is to our country, even when our lives are disrupted”.
Interestingly enough, both physical and digital copies of album sales fell by 23.5% in 2020, which makes it even more interesting that cassette and vinyl sales not only doubled (in the cassette sales case) but hitting a nearly three-decade high in vinyl sales.
Gaining momentum from a steady increase over the years, cassettes topped off 2020 with just over 150,000 cassettes sold over a 12-month period. Dua Lipa, Kylie Minogue, and The Streets were among the top cassette sales, let’s also note that a majority of the top sellers are indeed British pop stars.
It will be interesting to see how 2021 reports pan out, and if physical cassettes can continue rising.
You can read the full analysis of BPI’s report here.
Image Credit: lilzidesigns on Unsplash
