In 2023, demand for music continued to rise as vinyl sales increased for the 16th straight year, while a record-breaking 179.6 billion songs were streamed. The year also saw seven of the top 10 singles recorded by female artists, the highest figure since records began. Leading the pack was Miley Cyrus, whose break-up anthem “Flowers” garnered an impressive 198 million streams. However, new music was largely absent from the year’s top 10 best-selling albums.
The only new album to make the top 10 was Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which was a re-recorded and repackaged version of her 2014 album. Even so, none of the year’s new releases were popular enough to be awarded a platinum disc, representing 300,000 sales. In contrast, 14 albums reached that mark a decade ago, and 51 did so in 2003. This trend is causing concern within the UK music industry and leading experts to refer to it as a crisis.
Music writer Patrick Clifton argues that a new generation of artists is not building fan bases that will buy gig and festival tickets in two, five, or 10-years’ time, nor are they popularising songs that will have ubiquity in our culture once this generation of music fans reaches old age. Instead, the artists who succeed are those who cultivate a “two-way” relationship with fans on social media and “don’t mind revisiting songs from their repertoire if those songs blow up.”
While the shift in music habits has led to older songs continuing to generate streams after their initial chart run, it has made it harder for new music to make an impact. This raises the question of where tomorrow’s classics will come from. The BPI said 2023 was a “landmark” year for women, with female artists spending a total of 31 weeks at number one, the highest figure in the charts’ 71-year history
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More