Music consumption in the UK rose by 8.2% in 2020 according to stats from record label trade group BPI and the Official Charts Company, which mash together data from streaming services, download platforms and the sale of physical recordings.

The ongoing streaming boom was behind most of that increase, although the vinyl revival continues too. And even the cassette revival played a tiny little role in the rising consumption levels.

Vinyl sales were up by more than a tenth in terms of units shifted, despite the high street being in shutdown for some of the year. There was a dip in sales during the first COVID lockdown, but things started to recover over the summer months.

Mail order will have played a role in all that too, with some independent retailers offering home deliveries for the first time once COVID restrictions were in place. And, of course, there were various initiatives encouraging people to support their local record stores during the COVID pandemic, which likely resulted in a boost for the vinyl format.

Those included the likes of the #loverecordstores initiative and Tim Burgess’s Twitter Online Listening Parties, as well as the existing National Album Day and the extra activities organised by the Record Store Day team.

The BPI’s figures, based on Official Charts Company data, also include sales via most of the direct-to-fan platforms used by artists and labels. Direct-to-fan activity also saw a boost during COVID, partly because fans were looking to support their favourites artists, and partly because some artists and labels became more proactive in that domain during shutdown.

With direct-to-fan in particular, there is also a trend of fans buying physical releases as merchandise. Which is to say, they’ll mainly stream the music, but like to buy something physical to accompany a favourite release. That’s a trend that could be behind the other format revival confirmed by the BPI’s stats, the still slightly bizarre cassette revival.

Like with the early days of the vinyl revival, it is easy to exaggerate that particular trend. Nevertheless, cassette sales nearly doubled during 2020, with 156,542 units sold. Like vinyl, cassettes have a certain retro value for those seeking physical releases as merch, and they are also a lot cheaper to manufacture.

Commenting on all those figures, BPI boss Geoff Taylor said: “In a year when all our lives have changed, music’s power to inspire has never been more evident. The immediacy and convenience of streaming make it the go-to audio format for most of our listening, but more and more fans choose to get closer to their favourite artists and albums on vinyl”.

“It’s remarkable that [vinyl] and audio tape sales should have risen at all given the challenges we’ve all faced”, he adds. “The surge in sales despite retail closures demonstrates the timeless appeal of collectable physical formats alongside the seamless connectivity of streaming”.

Beyond discs and tapes, what about the streams? Because, while the vinyl and even the cassette revival are important for some artists and labels, obviously the vast majority of music consumption now happens on the streaming services. In fact, with 139 billion audio streams being delivered in 2020, streaming accounted for just over 80% of total consumption.

Streaming, of course, is the one music revenue stream not negatively impacted by COVID-19. Actually, as with vinyl sales, consumption on the streaming services did initially dip during the original COVID lockdown, but it quickly rebounded and then returned to growth.

However, because of the way premium streaming works, a dip in digital consumption doesn’t equate to a dip in revenue, providing that people continue to subscribe to their platform of choice.

Elsewhere in its stats, BPI said that nearly 200 artists achieved over 100 million streams in the UK in 2020. The top ten streaming artists each scored over half a billion streams, and more than 8000 acts enjoyed more than a million streams across the year.

Commenting on those figures, Taylor said: “A new wave of British talent is capitalising on the immediacy of streaming to achieve fantastic success, measured in the hundreds of millions, even billions of streams”.

“Record labels are investing heavily in new artists to secure the future of British music, boosting the UK’s exports and soft power”, he went on. “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”.

“But any satisfaction we can take is tempered by the devastating impact of the pandemic on live music”, he then acknowledged. “Recorded music is only one element of artists’ incomes and we renew our calls on government to support our culturally important venues, nightclubs and festivals until they can safely reopen”.

Of course, the shutdown of the live sector and the negative impact of COVID on other revenue streams like public performance and sync has put the spotlight back on how streaming money is shared out between the different stakeholders in the music community.

Many artists and songwriters argue that too big a slice of the digital pie goes to the labels, and that both industry and government should now review how streaming monies are distributed.

Alongside its year-end stats, BPI argued that among the challenges facing artists today is the huge competition for listening time, with unprecedented amounts of new music being uploaded to the streaming platforms each week, all of which also competes with the record industry’s vast catalogue that accounts for an increased portion of listening in the streaming age.

Getting the millions of streams that generate decent income needs good marketing. And, the BPI reckoned, that’s why labels still play a key role. A sufficiently key role to justify the cut of the money labels take, it then implied.

“Streaming means that there are many more artists active in the market than ever before”, Taylor added. “This is great news for fans, but means that it is harder than ever for artists to achieve success – so that continued support and investment from record labels in marketing and production is crucial”.

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The BPI has told us that music consumption was up in 2020, but what exactly were people listening to? Well, a whole load of major label releases, it turns out. Even on cassette. Actually, the cassette chart is almost exclusively populated by Universal’s Polydor label.

Rounding up the year in sales and streams, the Official Charts Company has released lists revealing the most popular albums and tracks overall in 2020, as well as the best-selling vinyl and cassette releases, and the most-streamed tracks.

Indie label releases are difficult to find in any of the charts – with none at all in the top ten tracks, albums and streaming tracks. However, with a few appearances in the physical product lists, this is actually an improvement on last year.

In the 2019 lists, the only indie release was a Kylie Minogue best of on cassette, which was released by BMG. Do we count BMG as an indie label? Well, do we? Maybe we don’t need to worry about that though, as the compilation was a joint release with Warner.

In 2020, BMG managed to get a Kylie cassette into the top ten on its own, with her latest studio album ‘Disco’. The album also made the vinyl top ten, as did two unquestionably indie releases – Arctic Monkey’s ‘Live At The Royal Albert Hall’ and Idles’ ‘Ultra Modern’, which crept in at numbers nine and ten respectively.

Anyway, I think quite some time ago I asked what people were actually listening to in 2020. So, let’s get on with finding out. Here are the various UK top tens of last year.

Albums Chart Of 2020 (sales and streams)

1. Lewis Capaldi – Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (Universal Music/EMI)
2. Harry Styles – Fine Line (Sony Music/Columbia)
3. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia (Warner Music/Warner Records)
4. Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
5. Stormzy – Heavy Is The Head (Warner Music/Atlantic/Merky)
6. Pop Smoke – Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon (Universal Music/Polydor/Republic Records)
7. Ed Sheeran – No. 6 Collaborations Project (Warner Music/Atlantic/Asylum)
8. Queen – Greatest Hits (Universal Music/EMI)
9. Elton John – Diamonds (Universal Music/EMI/Mercury)
10. Fleetwood Mac 50 Years – Don’t Stop (Warner Music/Rhino)

Singles Chart Of 2020 (sales and streams)

1. The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (Universal Music/Republic/XO)
2. Tones & I – Dance Monkey (Warner Music/Parlophone)
3. Saint Jhn – Roses (Sony Music/RCA/Ministry + Hitco)
4. Lewis Capaldi – Before You Go (Universal Music/EMI)
5. Joel Corry feat MNEK – Head & Heart (Warner Music/Atlantic/Asylum/Perfect Havoc)
6. Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now (Warner Music/Warner Records)
7. Dababy feat Roddy Ricch – Rockstar (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
8. Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved (Universal Music/EMI)
9. Stormzy/Ed Sheeran/Burna Boy – Own It (Warner Music/Atlantic/Merky)
10. Harry Styles – Watermelon Sugar (Sony Music/Columbia)

Vinyl Albums Chart Of 2020

1. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours (Warner Music/Warner Records/WEA)
2. Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? (Sony Music/Big Brother)
3. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black (Universal Music/Island)
4. Nirvana – Nevermind (Universal Music/Polydor/Geffen)
5. Harry Styles – Fine Line (Sony Music/Columbia)
6. Kylie Minogue – Disco (BMG)
7. Queen – Greatest Hits (Universal Music/UMC)
8. AC/DC – Power Up (Sony Music/Columbia)
9. Arctic Monkeys – Live At The Royal Albert Hall (Domino Recordings)
10. Idles – Ultra Mono (Partisan)

Cassette Albums Chart Of 2020

1. Lady Gaga – Chromatica (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
2. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Calm (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
3. Yungblud – Weird (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
4. The 1975 – Notes On A Conditional Form (Universal Music/Polydor/Dirty Hit)
5. Blackpink – The Album (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
6. Selena Gomez – Rare (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
7. Kylie Minogue – Disco (BMG)
8. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia (Warner Music/Warner Records)
9. Haim – Women In Music Pt III (Universal Music/Polydor)
10. The Streets – None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive (Universal Music/Island)

Track Streams Chart Of 2020

1. The Weeknd – Blinding Lights (Universal Music/Republic/XO)
2. Tones & I – Dance Monkey (Warner Music/Parlophone)
3. Saint Jhn – Roses (Sony Music/RCA/Ministry + Hitco)
4. Dababy feat Roddy Ricch – Rockstar (Universal Music/Polydor/Interscope)
5. Lewis Capaldi – Before You Go (Universal Music/EMI)
6. Dua Lipa – Don’t Start Now (Warner Music/Warner Records)
7. Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved (Universal Music/EMI)
8. Joel Corry feat MNEK – Head & Heart (Warner Music/Atlantic/Asylum/Perfect Havoc)
9. Roddy Ricch – The Box (Warner Music/Atlantic)
10. Stormzy/Ed Sheeran/Burna Boy – Own It (Warner Music/Atlantic/Merky)