Pick out the main features of this pie chart for your overview, write your report on a 20-minute timer, then compare it with a band-8 model answer.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
The pie charts below show the share of music revenue from different formats in 2000 and 2020.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
| Category | 2000 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| CDs | 78% | 4% |
| Downloads | 0% | 6% |
| Streaming | 0% | 70% |
| Vinyl | 5% | 3% |
| Live events | 17% | 17% |
GoPrep wrote this practice question in the style of the exam. It is not an official IELTS question.
An overview names the main trends or differences in one or two sentences, without numbers. These are the features a strong answer picks out:
Spend the first few minutes planning, then write.
0 words of 150 minimum
Your answer stays on this page only. Copy it before you leave.
Write your own answer first, then compare: how it answers the exact question, what each paragraph does, and which phrases you could borrow.
The pie charts compare the share of music revenue from five formats in 2000 and 2020.
Overall, the music industry changed completely over the period. Physical formats dominated in 2000, whereas streaming became the main source of income in 2020. Revenue from live events stayed the same.
In 2000 CDs accounted for 78% of revenue, followed by live events with 17% and vinyl with 5%. Downloads and streaming did not yet exist as sources of income. By 2020 the share from CDs had collapsed to only 4%, and vinyl had also declined slightly, to 3%.
Streaming, in contrast, had risen from nothing to 70%, making it by far the largest source of revenue. Downloads, which had also been absent in 2000, contributed 6%, but they were far less important than streaming.
Live events were the only category to be unaffected by the digital shift. They produced 17% of revenue in both years, and consequently became the second most important source in 2020, ahead of downloads, CDs and vinyl, which together totalled just 13%.
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| music revenue | money from music sales |
| streaming | listening online without owning |
| account for | make up |
| not exist | be absent |
| stay constant | not change |
| shift from X to Y | change from one to another |
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