Big crescendo for classical music as UK sales rocket

WATCH out Ed Sheeran – because the fastest-growing sector of Britain’s music industry is in classical works.

As a nation, we listened to ten per cent more classical tracks last year than we did in 2017. Yet across all genres, the increase was a more modest 5.7 per cent.

Figures from industry body BPI revealed that more than 2.2 million classical albums were purchased, downloaded or streamed in 2018.

Streaming increased by 42 per cent, compared to 33 per cent for the market as a whole, while classical music also bucked the trend for declining CD sales – with an almost 7 per cent rise in the sales of discs.

Andrea Bocelli’s Si was the best-selling album of the year, while Italian composer Ludovico Einaud was the leading classical artist on streaming services.

Geoff Taylor, from the BPI, said: ‘This is a dynamic moment in the history of classical music.’

However, the genre remains a small part of the music industry, representing just 1.5 per cent of the 142.9 million albums ‘consumed’ last year.