A surge in music streaming in the UK has seen it pass 500 million streams in a week for the first time.
Figures from The Official Charts Company show there were 505,849,000 audio streams in the week ending 16th July, which is almost double the amount of the similar period last year.
There have been 11.5 billion streams in the first half of 2015. This shows an increase of 80% on the similar period in 2014. Ed Sheeran is the most streamed artist of the year so far with approximately 170 million streams, while Sam Smith is in second place with more than 100 million streams.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of music industry body the BPI, called the figures “remarkable.” “It demonstrates vividly just how quickly streaming is being embraced by British music fans,” he said before stating that he hoped the surge would “help our world-leading record labels invest even more into unearthing the next generation of British talent for fans here and around the world.”
The figures also show that a total of 59 tracks have been streamed more than 10 million times in the UK so far this year.The most streamed song is Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’, which has been streamed more than 45 million times.
