Music production sits inside a rapidly expanding recorded-music economy, but the opportunities and pressures are uneven. Global recorded-music trade revenue reached US$29.6 billion in 2024, while UK music-industry employment reached 220,000 full-time-equivalent posts. At the same time, streaming remains concentrated and producers are divided about artificial intelligence.
Contents
- Global recorded music market
- The UK music economy
- Streaming adoption and concentration
- English studio services and finances
- The US sound engineering workforce
- AI attitudes among UK producers
Global recorded music market
The IFPI 2024 global market figures show an industry still led by streaming, with physical formats retaining a smaller but measurable role. Global recorded music trade revenue rose 4.8% year over year to US$29.6 billion in 2024. Streaming revenue reached US$20.4 billion, exceeding US$20 billion for the first time, and represented 69.0% of all global recorded-music revenue.
Paid-subscription streaming revenue grew 9.5% globally in 2024, compared with 1.2% growth in ad-supported streaming. Paid subscription accounts reached 752 million users worldwide by the end of the year. These figures describe the market around recorded releases, rather than the income of an individual producer or artist.
Physical formats generated US$4.8 billion in 2024, down 3.1%. Vinyl was an exception within that category: its revenue increased 4.6%, marking an 18th consecutive year of growth. Performance-rights revenue reached US$2.9 billion, up 5.9%, while synchronization revenue reached US$650 million, up 6.4%. Downloads and other digital formats accounted for 2.8% of global recorded-music revenue and declined 7.7%.
Regional performance was varied. The USA and Canada represented 40.3% of global recorded-music revenue in 2024. Europe represented 29.5% and grew 8.3%. Asia’s recorded-music revenue grew 1.3%, and the region supplied 45.1% of global physical revenue. Latin America grew 22.5%, its 15th consecutive year of growth, with streaming accounting for 87.8% of the region’s recorded-music revenue. The Middle East and North Africa grew 22.8%, the fastest growth among regions in the IFPI figures, while China grew 9.6%.
| Global measure | 2024 result |
|---|---|
| Recorded music trade revenue | US$29.6 billion |
| Streaming revenue | US$20.4 billion |
| Streaming share of revenue | 69.0% |
| Physical-format revenue | US$4.8 billion |
| Performance-rights revenue | US$2.9 billion |
| Synchronization revenue | US$650 million |
The UK music economy
The This Is Music 2025 report places the UK music industry’s gross value added at £8.0 billion in 2024, up 5% from £7.6 billion in 2023. Music export revenue reached £4.8 billion, compared with £4.6 billion in 2023, also a 5% increase. Employment reached 220,000 full-time-equivalent posts, up from 216,000.
The creator and rights-management measures show several routes through the production economy. UK music publisher revenue reached £1.7 billion in 2024, up from £1.6 billion. PRS for Music paid £1.02 billion to songwriters, composers, and music publishers, an 8.1% increase from 2023. PPL paid £284.6 million to UK recording rightsholders, up from £271.9 million.
Streaming revenue in the UK reached £1.02 billion in 2024, up 5.7% from £962 million in 2023. Physical music revenue reached £246.5 million, up 1.3% from £243.4 million. The contrast is useful for electronic-music producers: streaming is the larger measured UK revenue stream in these figures, while physical releases remain a substantial source of recorded-music income.
The UK Music employment report counted 157,800 UK music creators, including producers and engineers, in 2024, up 2.9% from 153,400 in 2023. Income was uneven. Among UK musicians earning all of their income from music, average annual music income was £30,000, while 43% of UK musicians earned less than £14,000 a year from music.
Streaming adoption and concentration
The UK figures in the Competition and Markets Authority executive summary describe a large and highly concentrated market. UK music-streaming services had 39 million monthly active users in 2021 and generated more than 138 billion streams during that year. The monthly price of an individual UK music-streaming subscription fell by more than 20% in real terms between 2009 and 2021.
Several indicators moved in a direction that benefited rights participation, although they did not eliminate concentration. Average royalty rates in major UK deals for new artists rose from 19.7% in 2012 to 23.3% in 2021. The publishing-rights share of UK streaming revenue rose from 8% in 2008 to 15% in 2021. The number of UK creators releasing music increased from 200,000 in 2014 to 400,000 in 2020.
Reach was much less evenly distributed. More than 60% of UK streams in 2020 were for music recorded by the top 0.4% of artists. Around 12 million UK streams per year could earn an artist about £12,000 in 2020, but less than 1% of artists reached that stream volume. The three major labels held a combined share of more than 70% of UK streams in 2021.
These measures should be read with their dates intact. The adoption figures are from 2021, the creator-distribution figures are from 2020, and the royalty comparisons span earlier periods. They are evidence about those measurement periods, not current forecasts.
English studio services and finances
The DCMS Music Studio Market Assessment describes surveyed English studios before COVID-19, with figures measured in 2019. Among surveyed recording studios, 97% offered recording services, 97% offered mixing, and 88% offered production services. Among surveyed production rooms, 82% offered mastering and 73% offered mastering and mixing services.
Service mix was also different across the two studio types. Live recording supplied 29% of surveyed recording-studio income, while producing and mixing supplied 27%. For production rooms, production and mixing supplied 38% of income and mastering supplied 34%.
Financial sustainability varied. Before COVID-19, 55% of surveyed English studios were profitable, 41% could sustain operations, and 4% had difficulty sustaining operations. Average annual gross income across surveyed English studios was £109.7 thousand. By type, average annual gross income was £40.1 thousand for production rooms, £132.4 thousand for rehearsal studios, and £112 thousand for recording studios.
Average gross income per employee provides another comparison, although it is not the same as take-home pay or profit. The measure was £27 thousand for recording studios, £18 thousand for rehearsal studios, and £16.4 thousand for production rooms. Because all of these studio figures describe surveyed English businesses in 2019, they should not be treated as post-pandemic industry estimates.
The US sound engineering workforce
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated 14,600 sound engineering technicians employed in the United States in May 2023. The mean wage was $35.62 per hour, or $74,100 per year, while the median annual wage was $59,430.
The national averages conceal differences by industry and location. Sound recording industries employed 2,400 sound engineering technicians at a mean annual wage of $59,040 in May 2023. California employed 6,060 sound engineering technicians, with a mean annual wage of $83,340.
| U.S. sound engineering measure | May 2023 result |
|---|---|
| Estimated employment | 14,600 technicians |
| Mean hourly wage | $35.62 |
| Mean annual wage | $74,100 |
| Median annual wage | $59,430 |
| Employment in sound recording industries | 2,400 |
| Mean annual wage in sound recording industries | $59,040 |
| California employment | 6,060 |
| California mean annual wage | $83,340 |
The BLS figures concern the occupational category of sound engineering technicians. They are therefore a workforce measure, not a count of all producers, musicians, electronic-music creators, or independent studio operators.
AI attitudes among UK producers
The 2025 UK Music creators survey, reported in This Is Music 2025, indicates that AI use and concern are present at the same time. Thirty-nine percent of producers said they had used AI tools to help create music. Forty-eight percent viewed human-controlled AI assistance positively, while 31% viewed it negatively. Forty-six percent agreed that AI tools were helpful to their music-creator careers, compared with 30% who disagreed.
Career risk remained prominent: 61% of producers agreed that AI posed a threat to their careers, compared with 66% of all surveyed music creators. The survey also recorded strong expectations around rights and transparency. Ninety percent of producers agreed that consent should be sought before compositions and recordings are used to train AI, and 92% agreed that AI companies should pay when using musical compositions and recordings for training.
Labelling and identity protection were similarly strong positions. Ninety percent of producers agreed that AI-generated music should be labelled for fans, while 92% wanted their voice and image rights protected. The results describe producer attitudes in a 2025 survey; they are not a forecast of adoption, earnings, or future regulation.