MARKET TRENDS

There are only so many ways of saying this so let’s just cut to the chase: streaming absolutely smashed it in 2017. Yes, vinyl continued to grow (albeit at a slower rate than in recent years). Yes, physical in general continued to defy gravity (although its second half performance was much worse than its first).

But the real reason record label bosses can look forward to a bumper bonus this year is that, according to the BPI, audio ...