Music streaming is on the rise globally and the UK is no exception, with new research revealing a huge surge in the sector across Blighty.
According to new figures from The Official Charts Company, there were 505,849,000 audio streams in the week ending July 16.
That’s nearly double the amount of streams measured over the same period last year.
It’s also the first time the number of music streams have ever topped 500 million in a single week in the UK, as noted by the BBC.
What’s more, the first half of 2015 saw UK users stream 11.5 billion songs – that’s up 80% year-on-year.
The research also reveals that
Sheeran’s songs alone accounted for over 170 million streams in the UK over the first six months of 2015.
Sam Smith placed second with over 100 million streams.
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Music industry body BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor described the figures as ‘remarkable’, adding: “It demonstrates vividly just how quickly streaming is being embraced by British music fans.”
The OCC’s figures also revealed that just 59 tracks have been streamed over 10 million times in the UK during 2015.
Of those, the most popular song has been Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk, which was streamed upwards of 45 million times.
It’s likely the weekly figures were boosted by the recent availability of Apple Music, the company’s fledgling music streaming platform.
The service became available at the end of June, and has been offered with a free three-month trial.
If you need a device to listen to Apple Music on, check out our iPhone 6 video review below: