Harry Styles Helped The Music Industry Rake In £1.1 Billion In 2019

17 March 2020, 11:31

Harry Styles was among the contributing artists who helped the music industry rake in almost £1.1billion.

Harry Styles’ second album ‘Fine Line’ – which was released on 13 December – broke records, making him the first UK male artist to debut at number one with his first two albums.

The 26-year-old had a string of hit singles from the album, including ‘Lights Up’, ‘Watermelon Sugar’, and ‘Adore You’, and recently dropped ‘Falling’ after its huge success when he performed it live at the BRITs.

Harry Styles Reveals The Book That Inspired The Name Of His Song 'Watermelon Sugar'

And, thanks to the One Direction star and a number of other UK pop stars, the music industry raked in almost £1.1 billion in 2019.

A sharp rise in the number of Brits using streaming services from Apple and Amazon caused revenues to rise 7.3 per cent, the biggest increase since 2006.

Stormzy also had a big part to play, after dropping his second studio album ‘Heavy Is The Head’ last year – on the same day as Harry's.

BPI and BRIT Awards chief executive Geoff Taylor said of the latest results: “Watching British artists such as Stormzy, Celeste, Dave and Harry Styles at The BRITs was a reminder of the fantastic contribution music makes to our national life.

“The music industry’s success is powered by record labels’ up-front investment and shouldering of risk, so it is important to the sustainable health of the music ecosystem that label revenues grew on last year’s results.”

However, he also warned the British music industry faces tough competition, adding: “British music faces intense competition at home and abroad, is undervalued by some tech platforms and is undermined by widespread illegal sites.

In fact, total revenues remain more than a fifth below the post-Millennium peak recorded in 2001.”

The amount the nation spends on music has risen for the fourth consecutive year, the BPI announced.

CDs remain the most popular physical format and vinyl records have seen a demand increase of 16 per cent.

Harry Styles’ latest album has continued to be a huge hit three months on from its release, with the star recently revealing his single ‘Watermelon Sugar’ got its name from a book of the same name.

He said during his Tiny Desk Session for NPR: “We had this chorus/melody which was pretty repetitive and a Richard Brautigan book, ‘In Watermelon Sugar’ was on the table [in the studio] and I was like ‘that’ll sound cool".

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