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2025 was a big year for women in music... and not just Taylor Swift. Olivia Dean, Skye Newman, Lola Young and more have all scored chart success, and not just in the UK. British artists like Sleep Token have scored No 1 chart successes in the US and UK in 2025.

The 210.3 million albums consumed in the UK during 2025 includes ‘streamed equivalent’ figures Streamed Equivalent Album (SEA) figures are a means of converting paid or free music streams into album-sale equivalents; hence the use of ‘consumption’ as opposed to sales. An ‘Album Equivalent Unit’ works out at 10 track downloads, 1,250 premium streams from paid services (such as Tidal or Apple Music), or 3,750 advert-supported streams (such as Spotify Free or YouTube). While this has been standard practice for more than a decade, the notion of buying a whole album does not sit right with some streaming fans.

It’s also worth noting that the Taylor Swift effect is still a major component in music sales. Aside from being the first artist since ABBA to have biggest selling album in the UK for two consecutive years with two different albums, the impact of her The Life Of A Showgirl album represents a significant part of the total number of LPs sold.

The biggest selling LPs in the UK last year was a mix of old and new, with the Oasis tour sparking reissue success, and Manic Street Preachers new album doing well. However, of the old guard, only Rumours by Fleetwood Mac made the top 10.