One day soon, the music business is going to let itself get carried away with how things are going. Q1 saw Album Equivalent Sales rocket by 10.7% off the back of the now-standard streaming growth and the almost-as-standard physical market resilience.

Now, growth of 10%+ is outstanding for any industry at any time, but the industry remains cautious. How come? Well, there are a number of factors.

One is the fact that Q1 was dominated by Ed Sheeran, who delivered ...