Take the 2025 UK Music Creators’ Survey and Help Shape the Future of Our Industry – UK Music

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UK Music is running its annual Creators Survey aimed at UK-based artists, musicians, DJs, vocalists, songwriters, composers, producers, and engineers. UK Music’s Director of Research and Analysis Andy Edwards explains why this work is so important and why your participation matters.
22.04.2025: UK Music is running its annual Music Creators Survey aimed at UK-based artists, musicians, DJs, vocalists, songwriters, composers, producers, and engineers. Many respondents complete the survey year-after-year.
Our Director of Research and Analysis Andy Edwards explains below why he is immensely grateful to all music creators who take the time to participate in the survey each year, and outlines why this work is so important and why your help matters. He also gives some suggestions for completing the survey:
“The Music Creators Survey is a key element in putting together UK Music’s annual economic report, This Is Music. The report estimates the economic contribution of music to the UK economy, which is GVA (Gross Value Added). GVA contributes to the GDP of the UK and is the key metric used by government to understand how industry sectors contribute to the economy.
UK Music’s work is well established and widely respected, not only by government but also by the media. We also produce exports and employment numbers, which, together with GVA, are essential data points in making our case to government on behalf of the music industry.
Obtaining data is the single most difficult challenge in putting this work together. Record labels, music publishers, Collection Management Organisations (CMOs), music managers, and the live sector contribute data, but the single biggest sector is music creators.
There are thousands of music creators, many with vastly different earning patterns, so we need as many creators as possible to complete the survey to give us the best chance of achieving an accurate picture.
The questions are fairly detailed, and we recommend you take a look in advance and prepare your numbers before completing the survey. The key data that is worth preparing is:
–       Total income for 2024
–       How much was earned in the UK, the EU, and the rest of the world.
–       How your income breaks down by source. To assist you, we first ask what are your sources of income (e.g. PRS, PPL, label, publisher, live performance, merchandise, etc), and in the next question, we ask for your earnings for each source.
–       We also need to understand your costs, such as paying producers, session musicians, studios, promotion, and so on.
–       It is perfectly OK to provide approximate figures, provided they broadly reflect the pattern of your earnings. Hopefully, this will save you some time.
For example, if your actual earnings are £24,643.00, it is fine to round this up to £25,000 to make the numbers easier for you to input.
When it comes to sources of income, make sure you only select the sources from which you earn money. The example below shows how a composer might respond. A touring musician will have a different pattern of income and will select different sources.

In this example, the composer has selected PRS, publishing, commission fees, and music tuition (which they may do on the side). This means when it comes to inputting their earnings, the person only needs to report on the sources they have selected.

The composer earned most of their income in 2024 from commissions, topped up by tuition and royalty income from their music publisher and PRS. The numbers must add up to the total you have given, but as long as the spread of income you report is a good approximation, that is fine.
Elsewhere in the survey, we ask about your experiences of Brexit, if this is relevant to you, and your thoughts on AI (Artificial Intelligence), as this is such an important topic for everyone right now. We also ask some optional open-ended questions.
Please be assured that we appreciate how sensitive this information is, and we adhere to strict confidentiality and GDPR practices. All the information about how your data is handled can be found at the top of the survey, but if you have any concerns, please let us know.
We very much appreciate the time and effort you all put into completing the survey every year. As a thank you, you have the option to enter a prize draw for some £100 vouchers for Amazon and PMT.
Please take part here: https://surveyd.bilendi.com/survey/selfserve/53b/g005/250304?list=2#?
Linking educators and the music industry since 2015.
Copyright © 2025 UK Music, Work.Life, 33 Foley Street, London W1W 7TL

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