A new report reveals 8 out of 10 music creators in the UK earn less than £200 a year from streaming.
The research poll, recently conducted by the Ivors Academy and Musicians’ Union, exposes results described as “shockingly inadequate” and “woefully insufficient.” The results translate to undervalued creators, with some of the poll’s startling findings are listed below.
- 82% of respondents earned less than £200 from streaming in 2019
- 92% said less than 5% of their earnings came from streaming last year
- 50% said their income from recorded music has declined over the past 10 years
- 43% said that insufficient income from streaming caused them to get a job outside of music
This poll reveals a harsh reality for writers, artists, musicians, songwriters, and composers with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of streams. However, the blog post doesn’t mention specifics like samples size or breakdown between creator roles. 
In addition, the following anecdotes were shared anonymously:
“I have written songs that have been prominently playlisted on streaming platforms … These songs have garnered millions of streams but generated next to no income for me as songwriter.” – songwriter
“I appreciate that streaming is the future. But the earning potential [for creators] given the company value is not fair.” – songwriter and artist
“[Streaming is] not sustainable and does in no way even return the investment I put into the recording, production or marketing of the songs.” – artist
“Albums which cost tens of thousands of pounds – perhaps hundreds of thousands – to produce generate pitiful revenue from streaming platforms, so there’s no incentive for…independents like me to make records.” – songwriter
Naomi Pohl, Deputy General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union, calls for change — “make the economics of streaming fairer; improved deals for artists, a bigger share of revenue for songwriters and an income stream for the first time for non-featured musicians.”
Just yesterday, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Select Committee was due to host its second meeting inquiring the economics of streaming. Follow along with the conversation with #FixStreaming.
Source: Ivors Academy
