Metro.co.uk – After a five-year losing streak, British music revenues are finally on the rise and made £928.8 million last year.

This was a 1.4 per cent increase on 2008, according to music industry body the BPI. Online downloads and mobile services rocketed 47.8 per cent to £188.9 million, accounting for around a fifth of the total.

CD album sales continued to drop by 6.1 per cent though, despite major releases from comeback artists like Robbie Williams.

Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive, told the media: ”It’s encouraging to see industry revenues stabilise and even show modest growth in 2009.

”The CD continues to show greater resilience than many predicted – it is an excellent digital product. The pace of growth of new digital services is encouraging, but the size of the market continues to be constrained by competition from illegal downloads.”