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Spotify has published some more data from its annual Loud & Clear report, this time focusing on the UK.
Given the worries within the British industry about its artists facing ever more competition internationally, the stats make for interesting – and perhaps reassuring – reading.
Spotify says that royalties generated by UK artists on its service have more than doubled since 2018, reaching £810m in 2024. That’s $1.08bn at current exchange rates, which means UK artists accounted for around 10.8% of Spotify’s $10bn global payouts last year.
However, the other encouraging stat for UK music companies is this: more than three quarters of those royalties generated by British artists in 2024 came from listeners outside the UK.
International streams of their music grew 28% year-on-year, with more than 271bn global streams on Spotify in 2024.
“This is one of the big points that jumps out to me in this year’s report,” Bryan Johnson, Spotify’s head of artist and industry partnerships, international, told Music Ally in an interview.
“As streaming has started to mature, as it’s becoming mainstream, we’ve found ourselves in a borderless society with way more opportunity for music exports. We’ve seen a lot of talk about UK artists exporting and finding global audiences. Is it the powerhouse that it was? We still think it is, and we’re seeing some of that data reflected here.”
Spotify also says that the number of UK artists who generated at least £10k, £50k and £100k in royalties in 2024 have all more than doubled since 2017, while the number generating more than £1m grew by 20% year-on-year – although the company is not saying how many UK artists are in this category.
Spotify also pointed to growth for women artists from the UK, with a 52% increase in domestic streams and 82% growth for international streams over the last five years.
All of this ties in to Spotify’s desire to influence the conversation about streaming royalties and artists’ remuneration – a debate that often sees it being the lightning rod for criticism of the way this ecosystem works.
“We’re seeing more artists find audiences globally and generate royalties at all levels. The question of streaming economics – where does the money go and how does it flow? – is a super-important conversation to address,” said Johnson.
“The industry – and I speak from my own experience [Johnson was in 2000s band the Dead 60s] – has historically been a murky place for artists and songwriters looking for answers and going on treasure hunts or wild goose chases to track down royalties,” said Johnson.
“We come to the table with Loud & Clear. We want to be part of this conversation to move us forward. We’ve got no visibility into the take-home [royalties] for artists and songwriters. We don’t have visibility into their arrangements with their rightsholders, but we do have visibility into our own data, and we’re happy to share that year-on-year. We’re still the only streaming service doing that.”
Spotify’s recent response to criticism from British artist Kate Nash, when it said how much it had paid out for her biggest hit and named her label in its statement to journalists, reflects the company’s desire to be more on the front-foot in these debates.
“Sometimes transparency is the best way. It’s best to have a public conversation in the open. We will publicly address matters when we think they need correcting,” said Johnson.
“We’re really disappointed when we read or hear about artists or songwriters not receiving what they believe they should be receiving. We pay out a lot of money on a regular basis, and it goes into the pipes of an established music industry with established pipes, and those pipes can take a while to pay people. Those pipes may not be as efficient as they once were, or there may be room for fair efficiencies.”
“But we believe that if other streaming services come forward like Spotify’s Loud & Clear, if other music companies broadly can come forward, we can build a more holistic picture, and all the work that is going on across the industry around creator remuneration will be better for it.”
Alongside exports, another current topic of debate in the UK’s music industry is the domestic performance of its homegrown artists, with the charts recently being stuffed with overseas acts.
It’s perhaps notable that Spotify’s Loud & Clear data doesn’t address this directly: there are a lot more stats on international growth than the domestic market: the main number being that British artists are “featuring in over 367 million UK-generated playlists”.
One of the trends here is a growing appetite from British listeners for international music. Spotify’s data drop today includes a list of the 10 fastest-growing international genres in the UK, headed by a startling 1,460% increase in streams of Sexy Drill music – context on that is here if it’s new to you.
Reggaeton Chileno (up 446%), Seresta (up 312%), Lagu Timur (up 300%) and Indonesian Pop (up 261%) also feature prominently, alongside Afro House, Electro Corridos, Lagu Jawa, Dangdut, Indonesian Indie and Malay Rap.
“20 years ago we had bricks-and-mortar stores that had limited shelf space and limited genres stocked. Anything which was outside the traditional genres was lumped into ‘world music’ in a corner. Now the shelf space is vast – it’s unlimited – and these genres are breaking through,” said Johnson.
“Audiences are receptive to the sounds, and interestingly artists are receptive to the sounds too. If I’m 15 years old now, sat at home making music on my computer or with a guitar or any other instrument, I’m listening to these genres coming through, and that’s going to influence my creativity and my output,” he continued.
“And if I start releasing music commercially, that will then influence the next generation, and it’s this fantastic daisy-chain effect that we’ll be able to see. I think it’s a win for creativity, but it’s also a win for the health of the music industry.”
In other words, it’s possible to be optimistic about the next generation of British artists: that they may be ready to reach listeners globally because they’ve absorbed this wide palette of international music.
They’ll still be competing with artists from all those other countries that have done the same thing, of course. But perhaps Spotify’s data hints that some of the trends currently giving British label executives sleepless nights may yet fuel the next wave of UK artists who’ll find success globally.
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Music Ally's Head of Insight More by Stuart Dredge
Get a mix of the vital news, analysis, and insider tips from across Music Ally’s services.
(Plus all the weird links & unusual music we find online.)
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*actual levels of fun may vary wildly
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