The UK music industry continues to see a dramatic reduction in the revenue which it generates, the main causes of this appear to be online digital downloads and digital privacy. Another cause which has been suggested by the music industry is the lack of big act names on tour within the country. In the past year the revenue generated by the music industry in the UK has fallen by £189 million on the previous year.

Music sales have seen a dramatic reduction since 2009; incidentally 2009 was a fantastic year for the music industry with major selling albums from Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. Revenues in 2010 declined to £3.8 billion which was a fall of 3.8%.

Band managers have taken a tough decision in the last two years to tighten up on the amount of bands participating in tours. Mainly these decisions were made as consumers stop spending on luxury goods, there had been a worry that a tour may not sell out.

This is a tragic time for the music industry, in recent times the industry had seen a decade of growth. Music industry experts have suggested that certain artists and bands chose to perform at smaller venues than usual as they were worried they would not receive sell out crowds at larger venues. Artists who have taken this strategy include Kings of Leon and Rod Stewart. In total there has been a 70% fall in revenues which are generated from tour performances.

Whilst there has been a major fall the music industry is expecting an increase this year as numerous big acts including Rihanna, Westlife, Take That and Justin Bieber all complete major UK tours.

Music festivals continue to be very popular within the UK with sales increasing by 20%, although many fans have suggested that the line ups at these festivals are not as high quality as usual.

CD sales continue to fall on a regular basis, with much of the blame being placed on digital downloads and music piracy. Many record companies have vowed to only offer their music on downloads within the next five years. Popular artist Adele has helped the CD sales greatly, her album sales account for 10% of the sales in the last four months.