The BPI recently published ‘All About The Music 2026’, a yearbook of figures, patterns and trends from the UK’s music industry based on 2025’s market. They use data from the UK Official Charts statistics to reveal the nation’s fluctuating tastes and what it means for both artists and listeners. This year’s edition found that in 2025, rock music accounted for 22.2% of overall single consumption, shy of pop’s 33.3% – a 0.8% increase over 2024 and the highest share rock has had since 2016.

The latest boon in the genre’s performance has been aided by six songs classified as rock entering the UK Top 10 this year, especially compared with only one achieving the feat in 2020. One such single from 2025 was English indie rock star Sam Fender’s BRIT Song of the Year winner ‘Rein Me In’, featuring Olivia Dean. The song broke a chart record by spending 35 weeks in the Top 40 Chart before finally clinching the number one spot this February, becoming Fender’s first UK number one single and his first entry on the US’s Billboard Hot 100.

New acts breaking through were responsible for more growth, such as British metal sensations Sleep Token, whose single ‘Caramel’ was their first in the Top 10, while American singer-songwriters Gigi Perez and sombr had chart success with tracks ‘Sailor Song’ and ‘Back To Friends’ respectively. Other big rock entries this year profited from online trends and nostalgia to climb back up, including Benson Boone’s ‘Beautiful Things’, which endured from 2024 to become the biggest rock song and 7th biggest overall chart single of 2025’s year-end list. Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’, The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ all also made the Top 40 final list.

Rock also cemented its place as the biggest genre for album consumption, increasing from a 35.3% share of stats in 2024 to 36.0% last year, handily beating out pop’s 28.9%. Of the four albums they class as rock to make the year’s Top 10 Album Chart, two were a by-product of Oasis’s reunion and their enormously-successful world tour. Their 1995 LP ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ and 2010 greatest hits compilation ‘Time Flies… 1994-2009’ both re-entered the charts, alongside Fleetwood Mac’s 2018 compendium ‘50 Years – Don’t Stop’.

The biggest rock album released last year was Sam Fender’s ‘People Watching’ which won the 2025 Mercury Prize, and had the highest first-week sales of any album for the year. Of the 17 rock albums to top the charts throughout 2025, 15 were by British artists, coming from Aerosmith and Yungblud’s collaborative release ‘One More Time’, Pulp’s comeback album ‘More’, and Sleep Token’s ‘Even In Arcadia’ among others. The news, which the BPI published on the 29th of April, comes in a week where Welsh metal group Skindred have just achieved their first Number One Album after 30 years with ‘You Got This’. Further statistics from the research show that rock accounted for a commanding 54.9% of vinyl sales in the UK, bolstered by modern pressings as well as genre-defining classics such as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumors’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.

The BPI’s Chief Executive, Dr Jo Twist OBE, says “For decades, rock has played a critical role in maintaining and enhancing the UK’s status as a global music superpower. This was truer than ever in 2025. Rock has long flourished thanks to its incredible foundations built on a deep, exceptional and still-cherished back catalogue. We can now add to that contemporary stars such as Sam Fender, Sleep Token, Wolf Alice, and Yungblud, who hail from across the UK and who are breathing new life into this much-loved genre both at home and around the world.”

You can explore these findings and more in ‘All About The Music 2026’, which is free for BPI members and available for purchase now on their website. The institute is also planning a live ‘insight session’ titled ‘The Long Play: UK Rock in the Age of Streaming’. The event will be a deep-dive into rock’s enduring popularity and where it goes from here, featuring panels of industry experts. The event is today, the 30th of April, held at Liverpool Sound City – click here for more info.

Specific dates and venues for the UK leg have not yet been confirmed. While the official setlist hasn’t been revealed, it’s likely to include a mix of her iconic hits like ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, ‘Whenever, Wherever’, and tracks from her recent projects. Shakira’s team has not formally announced the tour yet, but it appears to be part of her larger comeback strategy to tease these plans through media outlets.

According to The Sun, Shakira has “earmarked venues in the UK to host huge performances in 2026.” The concert insider states that the tour could last for years because “she wants to do a full lap of the globe.” — https://t.co/vCKYnTEmbp pic.twitter.com/P9hFguustY

— shakirastuff | fan account (@shakirastuff_) January 2, 2025

The Colombian singer-songwriter rose to fame in the late 1990s with hits like ‘Whenever, Wherever’ and solidified her status as a pop icon with tracks like ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ and ‘Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)’. Known for her distinctive voice, belly dancing, and genre-blending style, Shakira has become one of the best-selling Latin artists of all time. Shakira’s iconic song ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, featuring Wyclef Jean, achieved massive success in the UK, solidifying its place as one of the most memorable pop hits of the 2000s. Released in February 2006, the song reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart in June 2006. It remained at the top spot for 1 week and stayed in the Top 10 for several weeks afterwards. By 2023, it was certified 2x Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), signifying over 1.2 million units sold in the UK.

Shakira has had a strong connection with her UK fanbase, regularly visiting for tours, promotional events, and global concerts. She first toured the UK in 2002 as part of her first English-language album ‘Laundry Service’ (2001). This visit marked her introduction to the British audience and played a key role in establishing her as an international star. Shakira’s most recent visit to the UK was in 2018 during her ‘El Dorado’ world tour. Her upcoming 2026 UK tour would mark her return to the region after an eight-year gap.

This tour is seen as a continuation of Shakira’s commitment to connecting with her global fanbase, bringing her infectious energy and unique sound to stages across the UK. Keep an eye on official announcements for more details as the tour draws closer.

Statistics from the BPI showed that UK-recorded music saw an increase in sales and streams by 9.7% in 2024, to 200.5 million albums (or their equivalent), up from 182.8 million in 2023. This highlights a decade of uninterrupted growth.

The 11% rise in the streaming market has driven this growth – 199.6 billion audio streams were racked up over the past year, as opposed to around 179 billion in 2023. Streaming now makes up 88.8% of music consumption, a 1% increase from last year. In May, the Official Charts Company reported over four billion audio streams in a single week for the first time ever.

The BPI says that audio streaming consumption has more than doubled in six years, proclaiming it a result of “long-term investment and backing of record labels in supporting a diverse range of artists and new talent”. Between 2018 and 2023, UK record labels invested over £2 Billion in marketing and A&R.

Physical sales have also seen an uptick – for the first time since 1994, the sales of physical albums (vinyl, CD, cassette and others) increased by 1.4 percent. The rise in sales has been driven by new releases from artists such as Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish, who dropped multiple editions of their latest albums on the vinyl format, as well as classic records from Oasis and Fleetwood Mac. The vinyl market is now at a three-decade peak, with sales up 9.1 percent. In contrast, sales of physical CD’s have declined 2.9 percent.

The stats show that it’s been a great year for female artists – in 2024, six of the top 10 and half of the 20 biggest albums of the year were by women. To no surprise, Taylor Swift headed this progression, with ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ garnering 738,000 sales by the years end, the highest for any artists release in a calendar year since 2017.

Charli XCX left 2024 as the highest selling UK artist on the Official Album Charts, in an undeniable year that’s seen her earn grammy nominations, rave reviews, and pop culture frenzy for her club-influenced ‘Brat’ album. The release was one of 12 by female artists to top the UK album charts in 2024 – other UK female artists to do so were Dua Lipa with ‘Radical Optimism’, Beabadoobe with ‘This Is How Tomorrow Moves’ and The Last Dinner Party and their debut offering, ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’.

It’s been an interesting year for music, with both familiar names and emerging artists gathering accolades in streaming and sales. You can see our write-up on the UK’s five biggest songs of the year here, and the full list of 2024’s top-ranking albums and singles here.

Official Album Charts, 2024:
1. Taylor Swift – ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
2. The Weeknd – ‘The Highlights’
3. Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Short N’ Swet’
4. Noah Kahan – ‘Stick Season’
5. Billie Eilish – ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’
6. Chappell Roan – ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’
7. Fleetwood Mac – ’50 Years – Don’t Stop’
8. Charli XCX – ‘Brat’
9. Coldplay – ‘Moon Music’
10. Olivia Rodrigo – ‘Guts’

Kneecap have claimed the UK government blocked the grant, or the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) funding award, worth £15,000 in a bid to “silence” them. The BPI has said it was “disappointed” with the decision made by the government in not approving the grant, despite funding under the Music Export Growth Scheme being recommended by an independent panel.

A letter from Phoenix Law seeking a judicial review of the decision made by Badenoch claims the action is “state-sponsored censorship“, adding that the decision contravenes the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. The law firm also states that the decision violates the Windsor framework, a post-Brexit trade deal that sets out Northern Ireland’s rights in regards to the UK and the EU.

Our team has assembled https://t.co/JhzjuQctZB

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) February 9, 2024

A spokesperson for Kemi Badenoch has said, “We fully support freedom of speech, but it’s hardly surprising that we don’t want to hand out UK tax money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.”

Kneecap, posting on X, has said in a statement, “We’ve been blocked from receiving significant music funding because a Tory Minister doesn’t like our art. F*ck the Tories.”

The leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, an Irish nationalist party in Northern Ireland, Colum Eastwood, has called the decision by Badenoch to overturn the decision to grant the funding “highly irregular”.

He has said, “It would be unacceptable if the British Government had instituted a policy of defunding groups because they support Irish Unity, Scottish Independence, Welsh Independence or any other change to the constitutional status quo. Worse, in the context of Northern Ireland it may represent a breach of the British Government’s obligations under the treaty signed after the Good Friday Agreement which includes a commitment to exercise power on the basis of parity of esteem between communities in the North.”

He added, “Art is meant to be challenging. You don’t have to agree with an artist or group to understand the importance of funding creators who challenge the status quo and the establishment. I have submitted a number of Parliamentary Questions to establish what has happened here. If there has been a change of funding policy to make that more difficult then Kemi Badenoch needs to come clean about it.”

Kneecap, formed in 2017, frequently visit the topic of Irish nationalism in their music and sing in both Irish and English. They have released one album, 3CAG (2018), and plan on touring North America next month.

Listen to “Get Your Brits Out” below:

It comes after vinyl record sales in 2021 were at the highest they’ve been in 30 years, despite widely publicised issues with backlogs and delays. According to figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), at least five million vinyl records were sold last year which is an 8 per cent increase on 2020. It marked the 14th year in a row that the format has increased sales, with vinyl records making up 23 per cent of all albums sold.

At the time the BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor as quoted in Nova stated “It’s a great time to be a music fan, with wider choice on offer than ever before supported by great value. Thanks to record label investment into new music and talent, fans can purchase and collect the music they most love on vinyl, CD and even cassette, whilst also enjoying access to over 70 million songs to stream instantly whenever and how often they want, in turn enabling a new generation of artists to create music and sustain successful careers in a global market.”

The surge in interest of vinyl is a very intriguing  subject, below is a video discussing this new vinyl revival.

The biggest-selling vinyl album of 2021 was ABBA‘s comeback record Voyage, while Adele‘s huge 30 and Sam Fender‘s Seventeen Going Under also sold big on vinyl. This has been greatly helped by campaigns such as LoveRecordStores, Record Store Day and National Album Day which really rallied sales for independent record shops and specialist chains.

Earlier this year, it was also reported that vinyl sales in the UK look set to overtake CDs. Vinyl albums brought in £135.6million in 2021 (up 23.2 per cent year-on-year) compared to £150.1million in CD sales (down 3.9 per cent year-on-year). On this current growth trajectory, vinyl will be ahead of CDs by the end of this year. It also emerged earlier this month that people born in the Gen Z bracket purchase more vinyl records, than their milennial elders which may greatly explain the increase.

Introducing our National Album Day 2022 Ambassadors!@SamRyderMusic @KSI @thestaves @Franz_Ferdinand @TheMysterines

Discover more about this year’s #NationalAlbumDay on our site: https://t.co/1lcrg78uvU pic.twitter.com/MZ6vG4T9Yj

— National Album Day (@AlbumDayUK) August 16, 2022

The annual event is held in celebration of the album format and the configuration’s over  70 years of history and critical influence across the music industry. This year the event will mark National Album Day’s fifth year and will be held on 15th October 2022, each year is allocated a theme. In previous years National Album Day has taken on the theme of Women in Music and the 80s, this year the annual celebration will hold the theme of Debuts. By adopting this theme, the event aims to honour a wide range of initial album releases from many variants of genres and eras.

This year im going to be an @AlbumDayUK ambassador, which means i’ll be looking at and discussing one of my favourite debut albums from an artist I love. What’s your favourite debut album? https://t.co/DHkP7Jd6VD — ksi (@KSI) August 16, 2022

Speaking on the event, Chief Executive BPI Geoff Taylor and Chief Executive ER Kim Bayley have issued a joint statement, “Artists love telling their stories through the artform of the album and fans love to listen, but in a world where there is more streaming of individual songs, we take the appeal of the album format for granted. National Album Day is about celebrating the continuing vitality and cultural relevance of the long player, in particular with the next generation of fans, and we invite everyone who loves the format to join in and enjoy this year’s National Album Day.“

Since its inception in 2018, National Album Day has put on and participated in a wide range of events. The long list of activities include The Record Club, Tim’s Twitter Listening Party, two exhibitions held with Network Rail and Classic Album Sundays. The annually held celebration of the beloved format is co-arranged with BPI, otherwise known as British Phonographic Industry, BPI is the trade association for British recorded music and is known for putting on the BRIT awards. National Album Day is also organised by ERA, The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association, ERA is a UK trade organisation known for its involvement in record store day.

Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand frontman has also given a statement concerning the band’s ambassador status, “What a glorious medium the album is, On the most basic level it’s a bunch of songs that sound good together, but what I love is that it is a moment in time for the artist and the listener, a way to define a period of a lifetime. It’s the long form: a novel rather than a short story, a film rather than a trailer. Sure, you can get a panel of writers to construct a song to meet the criteria of the algorithm, and that’s a distinct skill, but it will never have the complexity or richness and deep reward of a good album.”

This year’s National Album Day will be conducted in association with Bowers and Wilkins, the event’s official audio partner. National Album Day is also presented alongside its official broadcast partner BBC Sounds. This year’s celebration will also include special broadcasts and exclusive releases, further details concerning these forthcoming events will be confirmed in due course.

Although many people will be aware of the rising popularity of UK rap and hip-hop in recent years, it is the rate and scale of this growth which might not be as well-known. The genre accounted for 22% of all singles consumption in 2020, whilst its share in the album market was 12.2%. Both figures represent all-time peaks for the genre. Meanwhile, when the BPI released the same figures for rap and hip-hop in the UK in 1999, the genre’s share in the singles market was 3.6% and its share in the album market was 2%. Thus, the popularity of hip-hop and rap has effectively increased six-fold over the last twenty years in the UK.

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Cited on the BPI website, multimedia broadcaster Jasmine Dotiwala commented on the genre’s stratospheric rise: “In the 90s, when I started working as a young Hip hop fan and TV presenter, I was told that Rap and Hip Hop would be a fleeting genre not to be taken seriously, especially the UK sound. Now it’s woven into the fabric of mainstream Pop culture – the power of Hip-hop and the influence of UK talent can be seen at every turn.”

She added, “Many of us have been privileged to have been allowed a seat at the table of Rap and Hip-hop culture by the Black community – the culture has given many people across various classes, ethnicities, locations and generations a career and chance to champion the music we love and enjoy.”

The new data also showed that domestic talent accounted for 33.6% of all rap and hip-hop consumption in the UK, an impressive stat for a genre that we have historically always looked towards our American cousins to produce. Now, artists like Stormzy, Dave, AJ Tracey, and J Hus have become titans of rap in their own right. Notably, with over 300,000 sales last year, Stormzy’s ‘Heavy Is the Head’ topped the UK’s international album chart for rap and hip-hop.

Such insights indicate a music scene growing in self-confidence; one that is becoming less likely to cater for its transatlantic counterpart and more unapologetically British. When we consider that it was not uncommon for British rappers to rap with American accents when the domestic hip-hop scene originated in the 1980s, the genre has truly come a long way in this country.

The comprehensive summary of the BPI’s newly-released data can be found here.

As described on their website, the BPI yearbook is “the definitive guide to the UK recorded music industry in numbers”, highlighting both the music consumption and trends of the past year. For instance, one of the many musical developments articulated in the 2020 yearbook was the rise of UK rap: “Through Stormzy, Dave, AJ Tracey and others, UK rap is at a new critical and commercial peak”.

Regarding the newly released data for 2021, 28% of people who took the AudienceNet survey said that their music listening increased compared to pre-lockdown; an immediate indicator of the crucial role that music played for a large portion of the population during the pandemic. This was particularly pronounced among the 16- to 24-year-olds survey group, of which 45% said that they listened to more music since the first national lockdown.

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In the qualitative section of the survey, respondents were asked to consider why music was so important to them. 50% of the participants said that they listened to music to raise their spirits; 40% claimed that music helped to alleviate boredom; 27% said they used it to boost concentration whilst working or studying; and 25% viewed it as a perfect accompaniment to exercise.

However, arguably the survey’s most important discovery was the role that music played in helping people cope with stress and anxiety. One fifth of respondents reported having feelings of daily anxiety throughout the 2020 lockdowns, whilst this rose to 60% as a weekly figure. Out of all those experiencing stress and anxiety, 55% said that music helped to relieve these feelings. More impressively, almost everyone that experienced such feelings (94%) said that music helped to lift their mood, with 91% similarly citing music as a way to escape their problems.

Discussing the new data in a press release, BPI’s chief executive, Geoff Taylor, said, “Music has many intrinsic additional benefits, not least in raising spirits and promoting wellbeing, but this new research underscores just how much of a lifeline it’s been for people since lockdown – inspiring and reassuring us and also helping many of us to work, study and exercise to greater effect. The transformational power of music to improve lives has rarely been more pronounced.”

The survey demonstrated that the role music played over the course of 2020 was both extensive and multi-faceted, providing the population with tools for escapism, relief, and productivity.

The comprehensive summary of the results of the survey can be found on the BPI website.

Brilliant report from @bpi_music out today showing the huge export opportunities for British music.

Even more reason that the Government should do everything it can to support the music industry – it will be key to the UK's post-pandemic economic recoveryhttps://t.co/ZlrN9OtN85

— Jamie Njoku-Goodwin (@jnjokugoodwin) February 18, 2021

“We are at a pivotal moment for British music on the global stage,” commented Geoff Taylor,  Chief Executive of the BPI. “As the UK works to build back from Covid-19 and forge its future as an independent trading nation, music can play a vitally important cultural and economic role. Because of streaming, our country has a huge opportunity to connect artists with fans in ways never before possible.  There is a £1 billion prize to be gained for the UK, which would benefit artists, fans and the UK economy alike.

“We are today putting forward a plan to work with Government to support touring and showcasing by more UK artists and deliver substantial growth in music exports. SME and indie music companies will directly benefit and amplify the extensive work record labels do to develop and promote British music globally.” 

The BPI is calling on the government to support an expansion in the promotion of UK artists and music overseas, primarily through the perpetuation of the successful Music Export Growth Scheme – a BPI administered, Department of International Trade funded initiative to boost British music exports by “supporting small to medium sized music companies as they look to build on the potential of their artists in overseas markets.” 

Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice are one of 250 groups to benefit from the scheme. “The global reach of British music gives us the ability to connect with fans all around the world, and the support that we had from the Music Export Growth Scheme early in our career was critical in us breaking through in key markets such as the USA,” they said. “With streaming now growing fast even in emerging markets, we hope that other new British artists will receive similar support, so that British music can make even more of an international impact.”

The number 1 best-selling record of last year is Fleetwood Mac’s iconic Rumours from 1977 with a total of 32,500 purchases. A regular Top 10 entry in recent years, the album ended at #3 in both 2019 and 2018. At second and third position in 2020 are What’s The Story Morning Glory (1995) by Oasis and Back To Black (2006) by Amy Winehouse. The fourth spot is claimed by Nirvana’s seminal Nevermind (1991) followed by Harry Styles’ latest release Fine Line (2019).

Classic albums by @fleetwoodmac, @oasis and Amy Winehouse were the UK’s Top 3 best-selling vinyl records of 2020. View the Official Top 40 in full: https://t.co/9N6lnA8Ply pic.twitter.com/tdcR6t0dqa

— Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 6, 2021

The best performing LP from 2020 is Kylie Minogue’s fifteenth record Disco that came out last November straight into topping the charts and selling 13,500 vinyl in its debut week. Already certified gold by the BPI, the album also made her the first female to land a chart topping release in five consecutive decades. The other 2020 releases to enter the year-end Top 10 include rock veterans AC/DC’s Power Up, Arctic Monkey’s Live At The Royal Albert Hall and Idles’ critically acclaimed Ultra Mono.

The rest of the Top 40 highlights two separate entries by the Beatles (Abbey Road at #15 and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at #37), Joy Division (Closer at #32 and Unknown Pleasures at #39), Nirvana (Nevermind at #4 and Unplugged In New York at #36) and Oasis (What’s The Story Morning Glory at #2 and Definitely Maybe at #29). The most featured band in 2020’s chart are Sheffield’s finest Arctic Monkeys with three separate best-selling records: Live At The Royal Albert Hall (#9), AM (#28) and Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I Am (#33).

.@ArcticMonkeys score three entries in the UK’s best-selling vinyl albums of 2020, including their latest, Live At The Royal Albert Hall: https://t.co/9N6lnA8Ply pic.twitter.com/D5NRLeopo0 — Official Charts (@officialcharts) January 6, 2021

Alongside the vinyl chart, the OCC also revealed the best-selling singles of 2020, topped by Liam Gallagher’s festive charity single ‘All You’re Dreaming Off‘. At the second spot is Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart‘ followed closely by Rolling Stone’s ‘Living In A Ghost Town‘. The rest of the Top 10 include tracks by Billie Eilish, New Order, Noel Gallagher, Coldplay, Kily Minogue and three other remastered singles by Joy Division.

The Official Charts Company was established in 1969 to keep track of all sales of singles, albums and movies in the UK. It is currently operated by the BPI and the Entertainment Retailers Association, and was updated few years ago to include downloads and streaming too to reflect the changing industry trends. For the last thirteen consecutive years, LPs have became increasingly popular and having a year-on-year rise in sales.

Surprisingly, the OCC also revealed that casette sales have doubled from 2019, and shared the Top 40 best-selling tapes.

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Публикация, споделена от Official Charts (@officialcharts)