Spotify streams of UK artists grew by 28% internationally in 2024
Spotify has followed up the release of its Loud & Clear report in March with a series of UK-specific stats and data.
Loud & Clear is an “annual report created to demystify how artists earn money through streaming”, answering questions such as: “Who is generating money? How much are they making? And how has that changed over time?”.
A range of headline stats relating to UK artists from 2024 have now been revealed, including that streams of UK artists from listeners outside the UK grew by 28% year-on-year, with more than 75% of royalties generated by UK artists coming from these audiences abroad.
Read this next: Digital streaming makes up over 85% of music consumption in the UK
This follows a trend of UK artist streams from outside the UK growing by more than 1000% in the last 10 years, with a total of 271 billion global plays of UK artists in 2024.
In return, UK audiences are also opening up to international sounds, with foreign language genres such as reggaeton chileno, seresta, Lagu Timur and Indonesian pop all growing their listenership significantly (with growth rates between 261% to 446% year-on-year).
The fastest growing genre in listenership in the UK is American rap style sexy drill, which grew by 1460% in 2024.
Read this next: Cash Cobain on sexy drill: “Instead of rapping about killing each other, it’s about having a good time”
In terms of artists, UK women have also seen a sizeable growth of listeners both in the UK and abroad over the last five years, with a 52% increase in streams nationally and an 82% increase internationally.
In total the royalties generated by UK artists from Spotify in 2024 surpassed £810 million, more than doubling 2018 revenues.
The full Loud & Clear report revealed that Spotify paid out $10 billion in royalties in 2024, with more than $5 billion paid out to independent artists and labels.
Read this next: Spotify CEO claims cost of creating “content” is “close to zero”
Despite the ostensibly positive headline figures from Spotify, the wider picture for musicians remains more troubling.
The Guardian noted in March that “it needs reiterating that only a portion of that $10bn will make its way to the people who wrote and recorded the music”, referencing the exploitative label and publishing contracts many musicians are tied to.
The “$5 billion paid out to independent artists and labels” includes independent artists and labels working with distributors that are owned by majors such as Universal, Sony and Warner, who have been increasingly focused on buying up independent infrastructure lately.
A 2021 report found that only 0.4% of musicians could potentially make a living from streaming, indicating only the biggest artists are earning liveable incomes from streaming payouts, while more recent studies such as 84% of UK independent artists can’t afford to tour in 2025 highlight the struggles facing musicians in the contemporary music landscape.
Patrick Hinton is Mixmag’s Editor & Digital Director, follow him on Twitter
