The BPI’s annual All About The Music yearbook for 2019 reveals a number of illuminating figures about the British music market. Read on for the rise of homegrown hip-hop and rap, decline in artist album sales, and how U.K. artists fared at home and overseas.
In 2019, hip-hop/rap hit a record share in both singles and album consumption in the U.K., according to Official Charts Company data. In the singles market, releases from the genre counted for well over a fifth (21.5%) of all consumption—up from 20.9% in 2018 and 11% in 2015. In the artist albums market, which included a #1 album from Dave, releases helped claim a share of 11% last year, up from 9% in 2018 and 4% in 2015. In the five years from 2015 to 2019, U.K. artists’ share of rap sales and streams increased to 27% from 10% on albums and to 42% from 16% on singles. In 2019, the genre was second only in the singles share table behind pop (33%), and third in the albums table, behind rock (38%) and pop (28%).
