What Was 2015's Most Streamed Song In UK?

If you want proof that the music industry has endured a seismic shift to streaming, here's a stat that will make your eyes water: 50,000 songs were streamed every minute in the UK last year.

That is a record of 26.8 billion streams for the whole of 2015 - cementing Spotify and Apple Music's status as industry giants who are here to stay.

According to the British Phonographic Industry, this is an 82% jump on 2014's figures, yet it still only represents 25% of all of the music consumed in the UK. And that means that there's plenty more growth to come.

Geoff Taylor, who is head of the BPI, said: "More people are discovering how wonderful it is to have all the music in the world to listen to - whenever and wherever you want."

UK stars such as Adele and Mark Ronson were among those driving the streaming boom.

Hello by Adele was played 7.3 million times in the UK during its first week, while Ronson's Uptown Funk, released in November 2014, received around 65 million streams.

The most streamed track of the year was Cheerleader (Felix Jaehn Remix) by OMI, which had nearly 72 million plays.

The shift to streaming is bad news for the old-fashioned album.

Downloads of albums fell by 14% during 2015 - surprisingly higher than the 4% decline in sales of physical CDs, which remain the most popular format in the country.

Although there are concerns about the levels of income artists receive from streaming, the different platforms for music are having a positive effect on consumption levels - which also increased by about 4% last year.

This was also helped by the popularity of vinyl, which has enjoyed something of a resurgence in recent years.

Vinyl sales stood at 400,000 in 2012, but just three years' on, annual sales stand at 2.1 million.