Fewer than 800 musicians in the UK are able to make a living solely from streaming

Virgin Radio

30 Sep 2021, 10:11

A new study has calculated that only approximately 720 British musicians make a living solely from the royalties they acquire from their music being streamed. Not only that, but these few artists are the ones that gain more than one million UK streams each month.

This new research from the UK Intellectual Property Office was gathered by analysing streaming services data between 2014 and 2020, as well as speaking to focus groups and interviewing musicians.

The study, entitled Music Creators’ Earnings In The Digital Era, discovered that the (approximately) 720 musicians who are able to make a sustainable living from streaming alone fall into the 0.4 percent category of those who are achieving more than one million UK streams.

The report says: “On the basis of the average per-stream rates we have calculated, we suggest that a sustained achievement of around one million UK streams per month may be some kind of guide to a minimum threshold for making a sustainable living out of music, at least in cases where UK streams are complemented by non-UK streams and other sources of income. 

“For solo performers and songwriters and for those with significant access to other revenue streams, that minimum threshold figure will be lower.”

Other findings in the study included the fact that nearly half of musicians (43%) reported earnings (solely from music) of £20,000 or less. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters (64%) of musicians said that they earned £30,000 or less.

The report said: “In order to achieve a sustainable income from music in this highly competitive and ‘over-supplied’ labour market, many music creators face considerable challenges, and increasingly feel compelled to spend significant time, energy and resources on marketing and promotion and other activities that are not ‘directly’ musical.”

The report comes after the government called on music industry leaders to help work out possible streaming reforms. Many musicians, including Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien and Elbow’s Guy Garvey, had previously told MPs that streaming payments are “threatening the future of music,” causing The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to look into the issue,

The Elbow frontman told an inquiry that “if musicians can’t afford to pay the rent… we haven’t got tomorrow’s music in place.”

Ed O’Brien Radiohead said: “Young musicians who rely on live income are really going to struggle.”