The UK recorded music market exceeded £1.5 billion in annual revenue for the first time, according to new BPI figures for 2025.
The trade revenue figures coincide with a new generation of artists – including Olivia Dean, Lola Young, Myles Smith, Skye Newman and PinkPantheress – helping to boost the domestic performance of British music.
Total revenue, which combines income from streaming, physical music, digital downloads, synchronisation and public performance rose by 5.0% year-on-year to a nominal high of £1.57 billion. This outpaced the annual growth achieved the year before, with the market now growing for 11 consecutive years.
The result was also in line with the 4.9% year-on-year volume increase for the UK music market reported by the BPI for 2025.
Trade revenue in 2025 was nearly 90% higher than it was the decade before. However, once inflation is factored in, annual revenue remains hundreds of millions of pounds below its 2006 level, the first year public performance and synchronisation were included in the calculations. Adjusted for inflation since 2006, the BPI said UK trade revenue in real terms would have been £703 million higher at £2.28 billion.
Revenues comprise income generated through streaming, purchases across physical/download formats, public performance rights and sync. The BPI’s figures are based on a survey of its members, with Official Charts Company share data used to account for non-BPI members. They are verified against data collected by IFPI.
The BPI highlighted the impact of Olivia Dean and Lola Young (both Grammy and BRIT Award winners in 2026), Skye Newman, Sienna Spiro, EsDeeKid, Sleep Token and Yungblud as part of the new British generation who helped to lift the market.
Alongside them, other recently emerged stars to make their mark included Central Cee, Chrystal, FLO, The Last Dinner Party, Myles Smith, PinkPantheress, Raye, Wet Leg, Wolf Alice and Mercury Prize winner Sam Fender. They were joined by established UK superstar artists who also enjoyed notable success last year, such as Calvin Harris, Charli XCX, Dave, Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Lily Allen, Oasis and The Cure.
While the nationality of an artist has no bearing on the domestic market performance, the revival in British talent does underline the health of the domestic music scene. In addition, the BPI will publish separate figures on exports that will likely illustrate the global impact of British acts.
This success is a testament to our brilliant record labels and shows what can be achieved in the right business environment
Dr Jo Twist
The geographic spread of success was highlighted by artists from nine of the UK’s 12 nations and regions topping the albums chart in 2025. These included artists from North-East England (Sam Fender), North-West England (The Lottery Winners, The K’s, Oasis), Scotland (Biffy Clyro), Wales (Stereophonics, Those Damn Crows), West Midlands (Robbie Williams), and Yorkshire & the Humber (Pulp, Yungblud).
STREAMING MARKET GROWTH SLOWS
Having broken through the £1 billion annual barrier in 2024, the streaming market hit another record high last year with revenue up by 4.6% to £1.07 billion.
Compared to annual rises of 5.7% in 2024 and 8.4% in 2023, this marks a slight slowdown – but the BPI said it still represents substantial growth for a maturing market. Streaming accounted for 67.7% of recorded music revenue, a small drop from 68.1% the year before as physical music sales grew at a faster rate in 2025.
“Annual streaming revenue has increased by nearly two-thirds since the start of the decade, highlighting the long-term partnership and investment between artists and record labels from every genre of music,” said the trade body.
Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI chief executive, said: “Beyond the positive headlines, what is especially satisfying about this 11th consecutive annual rise in UK recorded music revenue is that it has been in part driven by a resurgence in British music with a new generation of artists breaking through. Its impact is being felt not just at home but globally, highlighted by the recent Grammy wins of Olivia Dean, Lola Young and others, as well as on streaming services and music charts around the world.
“This success is a testament to our brilliant record labels and shows what can be achieved in the right business environment. Underpinning this success is the UK’s gold-standard copyright framework, and it remains essential that this is safeguarded by our policymakers as a burgeoning market to license music to AI firms takes root.”
YolanDa Brown OBE DL, artist, music education campaigner and BPI chair, said: “As anyone who saw this year’s BRIT Awards in Manchester can testify, British music is in incredibly strong health and much of it is being led by outstanding new talent drawn from across the UK. Given the intense global competition, I know how increasingly hard it is for our music to compete when fans have endless choices, so this success shows what can be achieved when artists of all backgrounds are paired with world-class record labels backing their careers. Provided our labels can continue this support unhindered, there is a very bright future for British music.”
SUBSCRIPTION REVENUE HITS NEW HIGH
Ad-supported streaming surpassed £150m in annual revenue for the first time in 2025, growing by 13.9% to £163.4m. Within this, ad-supported audio streaming increased by 21.8% to £97.2m.
Subscription revenue continues to account for the vast majority of UK streaming – 84.7% of the market. Paid subscriptions from services including Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube brought in £902.2 million across the year, up 3.1% year-on-year. Digital download revenue fell by 5.9% to £22.9 million.
Alex Warren’s Ordinary was the only track to generate more than 200 million audio and video streams in the UK in 2025. Its 261.9 million streams were more than 94 million ahead of Apt by Rosé & Bruno Mars in second place.
As anyone who saw this year’s BRIT Awards in Manchester can testify, British music is in incredibly strong health
YolanDa Brown
Five tracks managed 150 million-plus streams during 2025, including UK artist Lola Young’s Messy, while 18 surpassed 100 million streams, one more than the year before. These included hits by UK artists Chrystal (The Days) and Olivia Dean (Man I Need). Two hits by Myles Smith – Stargazing and Nice to Meet You – were just a few million streams short of this benchmark.
PHYSICAL TURNAROUND
Annual physical music revenue totalled more than £250 million for the first time in eight years, as the vinyl market rose by 19.9% year-on-year, and CD revenue also grew.
Physical sales rose by 12.8% to £278.0 million, a third consecutive year of growth. Vinyl revenue climbed to £174.7 million to take it to its highest level in more than three decades. Following a 0.5% decline in 2024, CD revenue increased by 3.1% last year to £99.6 million.
Having now grown in revenue for 16 years consecutively, an expanding vinyl market is pretty much priced in – but the growth it achieved in 2025 was notable even by its own high recent standards. The 19.9% year-on-year rise brought in an additional £29.0m compared to 2024. With 2025 revenue of £174.7m, vinyl accounted for 62.9% of all physical music sales last year, up from 59.1% in 2024.
Taylor Swift played a key role in the vinyl story with The Life Of A Showgirl selling more than 147,000 vinyl albums in 2025, the most by any new album in a calendar year this century. She also had the fourth biggest vinyl album of the year with Lover (Live from Paris).
The year’s top vinyl sellers were dominated by new releases, including by Olivia Dean (The Art of Loving), Sabrina Carpenter (Man’s Best Friend) and Sam Fender (People Watching). Music Week has reported on the appeal of the format among younger generations of music fans.
Catalogue continued to play a big part, highlighted by Oasis’ first two albums, Definitely Maybe and (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. appearing among the year’s Top 10 on the back of their reunion tour. The band’s success contributed to the market’s revenue growth in 2025. Fleetwood Mac’s evergreen Rumours also continued to sell well last year.
CD SALES RETURN TO GROWTH
Though CD did not match vinyl’s sales lift, the 3.1% rise to £99.6m gave the format its best annual revenue total since 2021.
As with vinyl, Taylor Swift was the main driving force behind the format’s sales increases with The Life Of A Showgirl selling around 226,000 CDs last year, while other big sellers included albums by Ed Sheeran (Play) and Lady Gaga (Mayhem).
The biggest CD sellers in 2025 were all new or recent releases, highlighting that its dominant driving force is now current albums.
SYNC INCOME SLIPS
Public performance income, which is generated by the broadcast and public performance of recorded music, fell slightly, with revenue declining by 0.6% year-on-year to £162.6 million.
Revenue from synchronisation, which occurs when music is used in visual formats such as a film, TV show, game or in commercials, declined by 10.8% to £39.2m.
PHOTO: Karwai Tang WireImage
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicweek.com ’
