Digital pushes past physical in the UK

Digital revenue from sound recordings have surpassed physical product revenue for the first time in the UK  in the last quarter, with download, streaming and other digital services accounting for 55.5% of recorded music income. A continued decline in CD coupled with the continued growth of digital, including an almost doubling in subscription revenues from streaming platforms, led to the change. Overall digital made £86.5 million for the British record industry in the first quarter of 2012, with physical sales taking overall recorded music revenues to £155.8 million. In good news for the record industry, overall sales were slightly up on the same period last year - by 2.7% - with the BPI's Geoff Taylor saying  "the industry's prospects for growth look brighter than for several years" although adding "We will need to see this trend repeated for several quarters to say we have turned the corner - demand for physical CDs remains strong in the UK, especially in Q4. However, the creativity, investment and digital expertise of the British music industry point the way forward for growth in the UK economy". The top five dgital albums came from Lana Del Ray (Born to Die), Emeli Sande Our Version of Events), Ed Sheerhan (+), Adele (21) and Coldplay (Mylo Xyloto) and top selling digital singles were Goyte ft Kimbra (Somebody That I Used to Know), David Guetta ft Sia (Titanium), Jessie J (Domino), Flo Rida ft Sia (Wild Ones) and Emeli Sande (Next  to Me).